Stormeye Saga: The Four Orbs
by Bluehawk
Summary: Bluehawk the Bounty Hunter blue fox sets off on what intends to be a short journey to find an old friend who recently left without telling anyone...but what becomes of this short trip is the most high-stakes mission he has ever experienced...
1. 25 Years

((This is the second fanfic in my series, based on my internet character and that of my friends, both from r/l and from SoaH city. The concept of The Four Orbs is MINE! The concept of SoaH city belongs to Neon "Ego God" Chaos and Dragoon. All characters the property of their respective owners and/or myself and Phantom Falcon. The concept of the chaos emeralds is property of Sega and Sonic Team.))  Prologue 

The nightshift sucked. The extremely bored and half-asleep fox looked around lazily. Why did he even sign up for this three years ago, knowing he'd be up all night four nights a week? Barely paying attention, he looked around at the grey mist, lit only by the numerous lamps, the shining snow at his feet and the black castle walls, thinking little of the importance of his job. Slumping against the stone wall, colder than ice, he closed his eyes subconsciously, waking up to shake a huge splat of snow off the side of his face. Groaning and cursing bitterly, he picked his rifle up again and slouched lazily against the wall again, falling asleep quickly. 

Soon the fox woke up again, not knowing why, but he knew that he had woken with a start. Suddenly he heard it. A shot from his right, echoing down the short staircase. Then he heard gunfire. As quick as his brain registered, he grabbed his rifle which was again sitting on the ground, strapped it around his shoulder and ran towards the gunfight, which was still going, while shaking snow off himself and waking up. If someone was invading…that wasn't good. Slipping over the stairs and only just saving himself from a sprained ankle as he ran, he flicked the safety off his gun and turned left and right almost immediately. Careful not to slip on the snow's hardened patches, he saw the orange flashes of his own kind, guardians of the Pesnah Sphere, firing at black figures down below…who were firing back from the grey mist. Suddenly he heard the ricochet of a bullet hitting the wall behind his head, and looked around at the ground below, quickly hiding behind an uplift in the wall…lucky it had that medieval design! He thought glumly as bullets peltered into the rectangular shaped shelter. Knowing that he had nothing worse to lose than what he was guarding, Ivan, whose ranking was Private, quickly jumped around to shoot through the gap, expecting a bullet at any moment, that he would feel nothing but pain in moments…but he was lucky enough to survive as fate drove bullets through all of his current attackers. Realizing his luck, he quickly turned slightly to fire upon the dark figures now firing their pitons up at the wall for a safe entry into the castle. His majesty Reginald's last standing guard in the area wasn't going to give up lightly. Just as he was down to the last of them, the alarm sounded. "ARMED HOSTILES IN SECTOR 12! ARMED HOSTILES IN SECTOR-" suddenly it turned to static. That wasn't his sector, but they seemed all gone around here…taking a moment to say a prayer for his friends, slumped against the wall, covered in blood, Ivan quickly ran off for the other invaded sector, when another alarm went off. "MORE ARMED HOSTILES IN SECTOR 5!" Again, this repeated as Ivan ran as fast as he could along the slippery snow covered bridge, turned right and half-jumped down the stairs, wondering who would want to launch this attack…whoever it was obviously wanted power. Quickly he stopped running and slid straight into a black wall, resisting the pain from the impact to turn straight to his right at a sign of movement. Quickly, his eyes darted around, stomach churning and heart beating like never before. There was a whizz, like a bullet going past his head. Quickly he turned around and fired at the black figure running towards him, which dived forward limply. Quickly he turned back around just in time to see movement in three places. Looking around for a red button and not finding one, the blue fox looked around desperately. He was in sector 10. He needed an alarm button NOW! Quickly he fired a few rounds into the grey mist, hoping to hit something, and ran for his life, suddenly finding himself being thrown forward in a huge sudden rumbling noise and a lot of orange light. That had been another seriously close call. This was way past time to run for his life for now. Suddenly he heard another whoosh and quickly ducked to see a white streak fly over his head and explode upon impact with the wall. There was another announcement but he completely missed it. Quickly he ran out from the semi-circular passageway and over another bridge and right toward the helicopter pad, which had nothing on it…except for more black figures, running for the stairs. Suddenly they saw him and raised their weapons, their pinkish-red eyes trained on him. Ivan stepped back slowly, back toward the bridge, trying to scream but ending up with a wince…then he remembered something which should have been in his head this entire time. How could he possibly forget? There was a flash from one of the rocket launchers, and a red dot appeared in the center, followed by a white streak and Ivan was gone in a purple flash. Suddenly he was at one of the corners of the elevated platform above the snow-cleared helipad. The radiation of the Pesnah Sphere certainly had its uses, as did descending from its guardians…Suddenly there was another rocket and he had to 'electroport', as he called it, again, in a flash of horizontal, purple lightning, zapping straight to the next corner. Ivan looked down, knowing that he was the strongest they had faced thus far, judging by their looks, and those red eyes squinting, tilting their heads. Soon he was treated to the ol' orange flashes, also known as bullets. Quickly, with one sweep of his hand he was right in the center of the black figures, purple sparks flying from him for a few seconds. Then he threw his arms up and backwards, looking up into the sky, his eyes glowing a brilliant violet, and the black red-eyed figures suddenly started twitching, tiny glowing purple-blue veins flashing around them randomly. One by one, the figured collapsed, either unconcious or dead, and the fox known as Ivan went back to his normal state and leaned forward, puffing. Quickly he made his way back up the stairs to secure an important weapon, keep it safe…it was on the one corner he hadn't electroported to/from. Quickly he got behind the hunk of steel, just as another blue fox, this one with a taller head and a longer nose and a slight tinge of violet to his fur, ran around towards him, pursued by another white streak. Ivan looked at it closely…it was turning! The missile was turning! Without thought, transfixed at the sight of the other fox, whom he knew by sight but not by name. The fox stopped as he reached the wall, the rocket pounding straight for him. _Whattaya doing, you FOOL!? Suddenly he understood. The rocket slammed into the wall, clearly packed with explosives, and the fox was right next to him. The other fox took up a sniper position with Ivan's rifle, saying nothing. Soon Ivan saw the figures, from the same place he had come from. Suddenly there was a crash, seeming to come from the very earth itself as Ivan controlled his missile, going straight for a retreating black figure, almost getting kicked off its speedy course before hitting the ground and the screen fizzling out, then transferring to the next missile. Suddenly the ground started shaking violently. Ivan looked down, dreading…he knew what this meant. The clan had failed. Ivan exchanged a nervous glance with the slightly purple fox next to him, who nodded. Things were as bad as they could possibly be. The black figures had taken the Pesnah Sphere. That meant that soon-Suddenly a pillar of earth burst up beneath the nameless fox, lifting him towering into the air as more, similar pillars, shot out of the ground in random places. Ivan glanced at the other fox; up on the first pillar…His eyes were bulging, he was having difficulty balancing. Ivan had to get out of there. NOW. _

Future…Past…Day…Night… 

_And then to the centre of four,_

_Heroes from each compass point_

_Shall defeat the greatest evil and more…_

Chapter 1              25 years later… 

The kitchen was quiet, as usual. BlueHawk and SamaDaMana didn't like to use it much, as was to be expected. Hawk was holding a small, purple shape with buttons all over it and intently watching his TV screen, Sama behind him absolutely hypnotised. There were two figures on the screen, who looked like they were riding on top of vehicles from the future driving over the ocean. One figure, who was jumping to the left, was dressed in a blue cap and shirt with red overalls, suddenly he lashed out with a good whack with his enlarged fist, sending the other figure, the same but dressed in yellow and purple, straight into the road, before he zoomed off to the left and exploded. Hawk raised a fist in triumph and reached to press the grey spot on a dark cube object with cords in the back, turning out the semicircular red light near its front and the TV screen flickered for a second as Sama reached to turn it off, which for a second Hawk thought was a moment of great triumph until he had pressed the 'Channel down' button and sent it into misreception…too bad Hawk hadn't been in misreception, the last few weeks…before then had been so much easier! Before he found out he had a brother, a dark blue fox, older than himself, who worked for Phantom Falcon's ex-clan…his real name was Mykol Hawking, but he was careful not to tell anyone at this point, not even Sama or Minimaniac, and kept his brother's name tag hidden safely. The TV had flicked back to the news. Turning it off, Hawk turned around and walked slowly back to his room. His old friend, whom he'd first met when he lived at an orphanage, a dark blue armadillo known as Black Eagle, had joined him briefly in his mission to get back the chaos emeralds and then scarpered who knows where to. It was like he enjoyed being solitary, either that or just wanted home, wherever that was Hawk had no clue. Lying on his bed he went over that week…well, it may not have been the worst of his life, but it was close to it…he was just grateful to the fates he had actually survived all that…and DANG it had been lucky he pulled those rings from the generator in Cal HQ, they were extremely significant in the clash of super forms. He decided not to think about all this over again. What the past was could not be changed either way. All Hawk could do is accept it and try to have a good impact on the future….why had Eagle split, though? And where to? The answers would have to wait…Hawk didn't even know how Eagle had found him or where he had come from. Probably somewhere unusual, either that or he didn't want people to know, because every time Hawk had tried to bring it up the subject was quickly changed. 

Hawk left his room to find that Sama was standing in front of the door, barely moving apart from his breathing and the occasional blink. This was normal, there was nothing wrong…well, nothing WRONG as such…but something was different…he wasn't usually this stupid anymore. Ever since his brain-enlarging operation his intelligence had been slowly increasing…and this was about as stupid as he had been, not reacting at all when Hawk slowly waved his hand in front of his face. No, this was even stupider than…Hawk walked back toward the couch and sat down, Sama still didn't move…then suddenly he started looking around. Hawk shrugged, shaking off the idea that this was completely out of the ordinary, and went down to visit Phantom. 

"I'm going to look for Eagle." Hawk said suddenly as Phantom went to grab some food.

Phantom stopped still, frozen with surprise and thought. Finally he spoke. "…Why?"

Hawk shrugged. "I dunno. It's just kinda weird without him, suddenly. I mean, he was around for a few weeks and then he just disappeared, basically. One, he could be in trouble. Two, he's our friend and I don't know about you, but I miss him being around, Three, he's a valuable addition to our team if we're called for an important mission, and…" Hawk suddenly trailed off.

"And four?" phantom urged him. There was a silence. "There's something else you want that's outside of the city, isn't there?"

"I dunno, Phantom. It's like…there's something out there calling me…like I have to be somewhere else…and there's so many things I'm yet to know about myself! I'm beginning to wonder if these instinctive callings are…significant in some way."

Phantom looked at him, as if not knowing what to say, as if torn between two major things, as if he was making a hard decision. Suddenly he seemed to make up his mind. "When are you going?"

Hawk thought for a second. "Tomorrow…thing is I don't even know where to go…I kinda figure something will lead me to wherever it is I'm supposed to go."

Phantom knew what to say this time. "I'll come with you! I want to find him too…" He was cut off.

"No, don't…You'll be better off here."

"Oh, will I? What, with another friend away? My first friend on the…" Suddenly there was a crash of glass from above. Hawk and Phantom exchanged glances of concern and immediately knew…someone was after Hawk's emerald again. 

Hawk ever-so-slowly inched his apartment door open, tensely pointing his Uzana 32 uzi/pistol around all the currently visible areas. No-one there, but the middle of the three big windows was shattered from the inside.  Bluehawk opened the door fully, looking around anxiously. No-one seemed to be there except Sama, who was lying face down on the ground. Phantom slowly edged through the door, his own gun raised, and went to check Sama's room. Hawk slowly sidestepped across the wall towards his own door, then tapped it softly and pushed with his finger. No noise from inside. Placing his whole hand on the door and pushing it further, Hawk began to wonder if they had been attacked at all…but then he looked into his room. His desk had been upturned, the drawers strewn about the floor as well as their contents, parts of his bed were against the wall…whoever it was had searched his room, and he knew exactly what for…but how did they know he kept his emerald in his room now? Slowly he walked up to the side wall and the subtle dent, pushed his finger into it and lifted, moving a square of wall up and revealing a safe with a lock code. Slowly he turned the black dial back and forth, before there was a click, the door swung open and there was the glowing yellow gem. It was safe…but not for long. Hawk took it into his hand and placed it down the front of his black shirt, there was a yellow glow for a few seconds and the emerald seemed to have disappeared, absorbed into Hawk himself. He didn't think he'd ever have to do that again, but it seemed he had no choice. The emerald's protection was important…there was no guarantee he'd be as lucky as last time if it was ever taken again. Suddenly he remembered that Sama was on the ground unconcious. Hawk made his way out of his room to see Phantom standing over Sama. "He's fine…he's been knocked out, but he's fine…" Phantom said slowly. "All good?"

Hawk nodded. The sooner they got out of there and figured out why the heck Hawk wanted to go in the first place, the better. Sama finally got up after a while and said he'd been jumped, but how he managed to remember that and realize he was supposed to tell them was anyone's guess. 

*****

Hawk longingly looked back upon the city which was now miles behind, the buildings and people he had grown to know as home, while Phantom and Sama looked forward to whatever lay beyond the grass field, trees frequent in their wake. Phantom was sure that Eagle had come from this general direction when he had arrived about a month earlier, and so this was obviously the way they should go look for him…like, by chance, they would end up going to exactly the right place. Hawk turned around gingerly, thinking about this and walked purposefully onwards, as though trying to hide his doubts. Bouncing his steps forward, Hawk busied himself looking at the ground, the many ants scurrying along it beneath his feet and quickly swerved his path as he nearly ran face-first into a tree. He glanced behind him, to his backpack, the straps of which he was occupying his arms with. His little chao, Skeeter, who was growing into a slight blue colour and appeared to be growing a fringe of hair on his forehead, sat happily on top of it, nursing his own small backpack containing his supplies, his toys and assorted other things. He added a little extra weight but Hawk was fine with that, as long as the feller was being taken care of. Suddenly he heard a loud buzzing noise by his ear as his other chao, little green Paladin, flew cheerfully by his ear, before coming to rest on Sama's head. He was starting to go slightly yellow and was beginning to sport Sama's dreadlocks as well as his wings turning transparent, thinner, longer and retractable. Hawk smiled to himself as they reached the orange dirt road, Phantom at the rear and Sama just behind Hawk, who was leading. They turned slightly to the right rather than backtrack to the left, and Hawk's doubts about whether they would actually find Black Eagle heightened. How did they know where he had gone? Still, at least they were heading where fate would lead them: where Hawk may find out why the heck his instincts had been calling him out. 

*****

It was late, and the orange path kept going, further through the forest. It was a large forest, judging by the distance they had already walked. Paladin's flights had been getting gradually shorter, and Skeeter was already asleep on Hawk's backpack. The stars were out and only just visible through the dense canopy of trees. Hawk's ears twitched backwards, and quickly he turned around, not really worried about anything but just in case. Sama was behind him now, trudging along sleepily but without question…but something was wrong. Hawk shrugged it off and turned back around to stare at Phantom's backpack, only just visible in the lack of light. That's when he saw the shadows. Quickly his eyes started darting around…yes, the light source was from behind, a fair bit to the right, where the moon was…but the moon was up. They were climbing, swinging or flying. Hawk looked at just below where the moon was, trying to find where the shadows were, but Phantom's backpack was at a different angle to the moon than he was. Then he saw the movement, something black jumping between trees, silently…Hawk quickly tapped Phantom on the shoulder and alerted him to this presence. Funny thing was all it took were two taps and he looked straight at their stalkers. Suddenly Phantom was gone, a WHUMP was heard as well as Phantom shouting from the direction of the shadowy figures. Phantom Falcon had landed right on top of one of the dark figures, knocking it unconcious…then suddenly he was swept into the air with a piercing yell by a figure on a vine. 

"PHANTOM!!" Hawk cried. Hawk dashed straight for the tree closest to where Phantom had been and used his speed to run straight up onto a high branch, dropping Skeeter to the ground at the bottom, who slowed his fall with the beating of his little wings. Landing on a fairly thick branch, Hawk looked around frantically as Sama tried to scramble up the tree where Hawk was. Then he heard it. A muffled cry of protest. Quickly he leapt forward, grabbed onto a branch from the next tree and swung himself around to get closer into the vicinity. Suddenly he noticed that Phantom was above him, leaning back to the tree they were in as much as possible. Suddenly Hawk felt a strong dull pain in his right side and plummeted through the branches, landing face down, hearing a crack, and realizing a huge pain in his chest…his ribs had cracked… Suddenly he realized he was surrounded by presences that he couldn't define…but they were numerous. Suddenly he turned over, and let his eyes dart around. He was surrounded by dark figures, humanlike, but shiny…and they all had red eyes trained on him. They were going to take him out…and not for a meal! Hawk cringed, ready for the one in front to bring down a rather fast moving bullet…_Make them die…go away! Make them go… Suddenly there was a bang noise, and even through closed eyes combined with sunglasses Hawk could see huge flashes of light and hear the wailing screams and bangs. He opened his eyes, just in time to see the last streak of violet light rising to the sky…he had just been saved by some kind of psychic lightning…and suddenly everything was black again._


	2. Strange Power?

Chapter 2: Strange Power? 

Hawk opened his eyes slowly, trying to better understand the situation. He was on something soft and bouncy, which he noticed was a bed, and warm sunlight was pouring in from a window to the right. Slowly he sat up, and took in the view of a small bedroom, and by looking out the window knew that the floor wasn't very close to the ground. There was a sort of red atmosphere, and the blanket resting on his legs was tightly made to the bed, and sported patchwork patterns. Hawk looked down at his chest and spotted the pajamas he had obviously been given, white with blue horizontal and vertical lines, before feeling a sharp pain in his chest. Where was he, and how did he get there? He had badly hurt ribs…He had been unconcious…had seen violet lightning striking down those who surrounded him. As if that wasn't the weirdest thing he had ever known to happen. Then he heard footsteps. Soon a plump woman wearing an apron came in with a tray, which had a plastic cup of what looked like apple juice and a plate with a few sandwiches on it. The woman was a human! "There you go, dear, eat up, you'll need the energy!" She said, placing it by his bed. "And lie down! You've got two broken ribs, so you'd best give 'em rest!" Hawk quickly obeyed, perhaps a little too fast as he got a sudden stabbing pain. Slowly he started to feed himself some of the chicken sandwiches, wondering whether it was fate, chance, or a little of both that brought him to a town which seemed to be inhabited by humans. Then of course, he realized, there was either one or the other, only one of them could exist. 

It wasn't long before Phantom turned up, for which Hawk was grateful. Sama was around not long afterwards, but it was the conversation with Phantom that Hawk found most interesting. "We may have found Eagle." He said. "I've asked around, and people say they think he lives in the mountains not far to the west." Hawk was enthralled. It wouldn't take so long after all! "What happened in the forest, anyway?" Phantom suddenly asked. 

"What?" 

"That violet lightning…your eyes were glowing the same colour…"

"WHAT!?"

"I'm serious! You were lying there on the ground and there was this glow coming from your eyes…it even made it through your sunglasses!"

Hawk slumped back into his bed, looking straight up…so it was he who was displaying that power…if he could learn to use it…control it…even BloodHawk wouldn't stand in the way of peace…nor would any kind of beast! It was funny though…until recently Hawk had been told that the forests and fields were peaceful places… 

Hawk walked out into the town for the first time, slowly taking in everything he could sense…the smell of baking bread from across the road, the sight of the human child trying to reach into a huge crate of sweets while his father's back was turned…then he saw Sama and Phantom running along the cobblestone road towards him. "Ready to go?" Phantom asked, puffing slightly. A pair of chao, one pale blue and the other a greenish yellow, flew toward them. Paladin and Skeeter. 

Hawk looked toward the chao, who were beginning to bicker over a round rock. "Yeah…I just gotta grab my bag and pay."

"Already payed. Just grab your bag and we'll see if we can make you to that lightning trick again."

Skeeter swiped at Paladin's hand, where the nice little rock was, and Paladin quickly protected his hand with his other arm. Sama didn't like this fighting much and reached out a hand to grab the rock himself, only to be bitten on the finger. As suddenly as Paladin had reacted, Sama's other hand raced to its rescue…a little late to save it, but in time to nurse it. Sama yelped in pain, hopping up and down…and suddenly there were bursts of flame from around the hovering chao, who instantly panicked and flew straight into each other's heads before dropping to the ground. Hawk took his eyes off the minorly injured chao to look at Sama…was it just him or did Sama's eyes flicker a slight red for a second? It was hard to tell because they were normally purplish red anyway…

"I think…" Phantom said slowly, tapping his chin. "I think Sama's got some kind of power, too!"

Hawk having powers was weird enough…but both Hawk AND Sama? Now that was just plain ridiculous. "Come on, Phantom. You don't honestly think that we just HAPPEN to BOTH have strange powers? I mean…it's only the least likely thing you can possibly imagine! You'd think we'd have discovered at least ONE of them by now!"

Phantom thought for a second, watching the chao panting on the ground and Sama looking around, dazed. "We did." He said calmly. What was he talking about? "We've seen Sama display his powers before. Remember when Cal had him in chains, and he was discovered to have escaped? We later found he had severe burns around his wrists. You do the math."

Hawk had already done it. Sama had melted his way free.

*****

A dark cloaked figure stood atop a ledge of rock, high up on a grey, snow-capped mountain, waiting for something…patiently…patiently…a gust of wind blew past him, knocking him back slightly and causing him to shiver. What was taking the other so long? Suddenly he heard it. The chink of metal. Slowly he walked forward and peered over the jagged edge and saw just what he was looking for. "I was wondering when you would follow me." He said coldly to the pale yellow figure below. 

"Yeah, well, you ain't stuck with conventional means!" the yellow one said irritably, lifting his recovered piton gun and aiming it towards the ledge on which his associate stood. _P-tunt! CHINK! Slowly he began to climb up the wall using the piton gun's rope, grunting with each step and flicking off some hot sweat half way up. Finally he threw himself forward with the aid of the wind, and grabbed the ledge's edge, struggling to pull up the rest. "C'mon! Help me out!"_

"You have to exercise your strength, young one." Said the dark figure impatiently.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." He hoisted himself up and walked toward the cloaked one. "This the place?" He said, looking toward the ominous darkness of the wall.

"Yes. It is important that we exercise secrecy until we have what we want…you never know who could be down there…"

The yellow echidna nodded in agreement. "True. Okay, so does that mean totally covert or just not talk about anything?"

The cloaked one stood for a second, then leaned forward, revealing his eyes to the echidna. "Both." He said suddenly, raising his eyebrows. "Don't worry…anyone spying on us will be killed…it's just best to be safe."

The dark blue armadillo cringed in his hiding place. He already had figured out what they were after…but why? Like they were going to see him let alone kill him, he never got found unless either he wanted to be or he was running for his life…but it was time to retreat into his cave and see if he could find a vantage point to attack from…and unlike others, he had no need for teammates in bad situations.

*****

Hawk looked back down the rock-cleared path to Sama and Phantom. Skeeter was taking a nice break on top of his backpack again, but despite the extra weight Hawk was enjoying himself. The air was fresh and the view of the mountainside was amazing in the sunset, which turned it a bright orange. The town of Ekasn, which they had left this morning, had a visible silhouette against the setting sun, which was turning into a view of red clouds, which was really something to turn a head. Suddenly BlueHawk realized his friends were well ahead of him and used the absorbed power of the yellow emerald to catch up and slide into the lead again. Phantom and Sama didn't seem to be enjoying the view, but that was fine, Hawk thought cheerfully as they walked down into a large dip in the road. That was their loss. Sama pretty much had no prospect on life, it just was…he hadn't the brainpower to give it any thought anyway…Phantom was fairly serious most of the time, but he enjoyed a laugh…even though really he was in constant fear of his own race, knowing them fairly well, but not knowing where or when they would strike…they did want to conquer the planet after all…what was funny was that Hawk's own brother had joined them and gained power in their ranks…did he want his own planet destroyed? Hawk looked aside and realized they had progressed much farther than he had thought, they were about a quarter of the way up the snow capped mountain and the sun was completely down, giving way to the light of the stars. Hawk wanted to stop and admire the view, but obviously they had to keep going. Maybe it was the power of the yellow emerald keeping him so active. Hawk's perception on life was a bit different to that of the others, it was slightly younger, yet at times so much more serious…he had two sides, his energetic side and his serious side…like Phantom had his serious and happy sides…but Hawk's sides were more differing to each other…more far apart. For one thing he often switched between the two randomly…now, for instance…he was suddenly in his thoughtful state again. Perhaps he appreciated views and such because he never really had that chance when he was younger, his all-time focus was on his training. When he was out of there, there was so much to see and do…Suddenly he stopped abruptly at a ledge, with a dark wall at the back. There were platforms in front of the ledge, each with great fall distances and roughly equal intervals. The dark patch in the wall that Phantom and the two chao were investigating…it was a cave. A mountain cave…could this be where Eagle lived? Apparently he lived on this particular mountain…Phantom was already inside, Sama was standing at Hawk's side. "Let's go!" Sama said enthusiastically. Hawk looked straight at him, his head at a slight angle. "That's the first smart thing you've said for a while, Sama! I was thinking your brain might be shrinking again…"

*****

BlueHawk stepped in front of Phantom Falcon, who was blundering about in the dark, to lend him aid, conjuring a bright blue, glowing, perfectly straight rod from his clenched fist, holding it like a sword and giving light. He looked around at the red earth walls and clung to the left hand side, Sama and Phantom following closely. Suddenly there was a cry from behind them and a sound like rock hitting rock. Skeeter had made Paladin drop the little round rock and snatched it up. Hawk looked at them as if to dare them to make another sound and they slunk dejectedly back toward the light of the outside. The trio continued along the path revealed by the light, gradually getting colder. Could this be Black Eagle's home? Suddenly Hawk jumped back. He'd heard a voice. Phantom jumped backwards slightly. "I got an electric shock!" he whispered. "The power in you was just activated somehow…" Suddenly he shooshed up as he heard the voice too…a cold, cackling laughter. That wasn't Eagle…but whoever it was, they were  happy…and by the sound of the laugh, that wasn't good. Hawk deactivated the Lazuli Blade in his hand and ran forward, seeing a lit room to his right. The cackling was coming from beyond that…but the room was amazing, the floor, the walls…even the roof, seemed to be covered with navy coloured velvet with lighter blue symbols on it…it was a corridor. Hawk ran down as quietly as he could, sliding slightly upon reaching the end door. Slowly he twisted the handle. It was freezing, like ice only colder, numbing, even through his gloves. Quickly he threw the door open greeted by a blast of frigid air and a room of which the walls and floor seemed to be made of ice…the roof rock, covered in stalactites, shining brilliantly. There was a passage ahead, made from rock, turning left in an even curve…still getting colder. Hawk turned swiftly at the sound of Phantom and Sama's footsteps behind him. Phantom's look said it all. _Be quiet._ Hawk rounded the corner into a huge chamber, constructed of ice, like a giant, long hall, with stairs at the end…and at the end was a pedestal designed precisely for holding the blue, glowing orb sitting in it…it had a white mist inside, Hawk noticed as he drew nearer. The image seemed to be of the essence of perfect, pure H20 as well as the cold that turned it solid. Then he saw the other side of the pedestal, which had markings, writing…

The pieces of the thing you seek 

_Lie here and places we'll not speak_

_For when one is taken, its rival flourishes_

_And only its own needs it nourishes…_

The inscription seemed to end there, and had four round slots under it in a cross shape which seemed to represent compass points. It didn't really make much sense…perhaps it was a prophecy, depicting that someone would be taken and his rival put in his place? Then Hawk noticed three more doors, one at the back of the stage, and others at the sides of the hall. Ignoring his friends who seemed obsessed with the apparent prophecy, as well as the cold, he went for the right door from the stage. Inside was a small room, its floor of ice and a duplicate of the pedestal he had seen in the previous room, only smaller…it, too, had a glowing blue orb, which seemed much weaker. He picked it up and looked at the pedestal. It was melting! Soon the whole pedestal had turned into water all over the ground and a hot air vent was under it. Hawk stood there watching, transfixed. The floor, too, was melting down onto rock. It took some time, but soon Hawk was standing in muddy sand with water up to his knees…quickly he made for the door, noticing that the blue orb was gone, stepped outside and heard a strange _glumm noise from back inside. He opened the door again…it was back how it had been. This time Hawk simply yanked the orb off the pedestal and ran back to the one in the main hall. "The one on the left seems to be a lot warmer than-" Phantom said, triumphantly. Hawk didn't need thirty seconds to figure it out, he ducked down and inserted the blue orb into the slot on the right and made for the door opposite the one he had been in. It was a sandy floor…he had been right. Take one, its rival takes its area for its own power…Hawk nabbed the red orb from the rock pedestal and quickly ran to slot it into the opposing place of its rival. Both orbs sat there, glowing their unique colours. Then Hawk spotted a door to the left of the passage he had entered by. Now he knew what to do. While Phantom and Sama were realizing that the glowing orb on the pedestal could not be removed, Hawk went for the back door. The walls, floor and roof were of mossy rock. Hawk plucked the glowing green orb from its pedestal and instantly the moss started to shrivel up. Hawk threw the door open to where Phantom and Sama were pulling on the blue orb together and inserted the green orb into the appropriate slot, down the bottom. Using Hawk Dash to get a head start he went straight for the door at the other end and flung open the door. Inside was another rock room, but the walls floor and roof seemed to be reflecting the electricity in the center of the glowing purple orb…there were streaked flashes all over the walls and roof. Hawk plucked the orb from its pedestal and made haste to where it was to be inserted: The top slot. Suddenly there was a humming noise and the pedestal's glow started to fade. Then it began to shrink…and the evil cackle sounded again, louder than ever. Hawk looked around, tensely. It was growing even louder. Suddenly he noticed purple smoke starting to appear above the blue orb, then once a large cloud had formed it seemed to slowly implode and get thicker…then Hawk could see what was happening. A cloaked figure was appearing in the mist…no, from the mist. He was going to take the orb._


	3. Eruption

Chapter 3:             Eruption! 

The cloaked figure looked down upon the blue fox in front of him, glowering menacingly. The fox took a step back, a startled yet determined look on his face. The figure turned around to look at Sama and Phantom, and seemed to be studying them. Suddenly there was a yell from the corridor. "Sir! SIR!!" A yellow echidna raced around the corner, clearly upset about something. He looked at the cloaked figure, and then he saw Sama and stopped running suddenly. He stared straight at Sama. It was _him. He lifted a shaking hand and pointed. Hawk also gaped at what he saw. He looked to Sama. He looked to the figure in the middle of the room. He looked back. Both of them…were SamaDaMana. Phantom looked just like Hawk felt. He was staring at the doppleganger open-mouthed. The only apparent differences were the clothes. Sama's head ribbon was orange and so were his socks, both of these were cyan on the doppleganger. While Sama's jeans were cyan, this doppleganger's were green. And while Sama's gloves and shoes were green, the doppleganger's were orange. The cloaked figure laughed. "Surprised, are you? Didn't your echidna friend _tell_ you about the thing they stuck into his mouth before they dropped him in the desert?" They must have taken his DNA!?_

"Who's 'they'?" Hawk asked tentatively. The cloaked figure started pulling the orb out…

"NO!" cried a familiar voice…and suddenly Black Eagle had appeared out of nowhere with a flying kick and whacked the cloaked figure away. He landed right next to the pedestal, angry and puffing. "You take that only over my DEAD BODY!" 

This got the other Sama dashing straight for it with a cry. If Eagle lived here and he was guarding the orb so fiercely…there was obviously a reason. Hawk joined in and tail-whipped the fake Sama aside before lunging at the cloaked figure, who had thrown Eagle into the ice wall and was again trying to pull way the orb. But he'd gripped it hard, when Hawk pushed him away he managed to rip the orb out of its place using the momentum from the blow…he had it. Whatever would happen now…the cloaked figure grabbed the clone Sama and they were both replaced by a puff of purple smoke…he couldn't have been a chimera, chimeras teleported in a different way…Eagle stood there puffing for a second, before coming to his senses. He snapped straight. "GET OUT! QUICK! NOW!" Hawk shook his head frantically in disbelief as Phantom and Sama started making for the exit. Already Hawk could sense it getting less cold…suddenly the truth dawned on him. _When one is taken, its rival flourishes…_if they didn't get out immediately…Hawk dashed for the door with the others. The mountain was going to blow! 

*****

Hawk desperately dived out of the cave's entrance, a look of terror on his face. It had gotten so hot in there…suddenly Eagle dived over the edge of the cliff. Hawk was stunned at his desperation to get out of there…Sama and Phantom were right behind him, as usual…no way he was going to just dive off the side, Hawk ran with immense haste down the path from which they had come…there was an explosion form above. The mountain had blown its top! Glowing yellow sludge was gushing down the side of the mountain. Hawk skidded around a corner in the path and gaped open-mouthed. He had reached the huge dip in the road he remembered from the way up…but it was now filled with lava. No way he was going to survive this one easily.  There was a large flame exactly in the center of the glowing yellow pool…it seemed to be concentrating itself, getting narrower, higher and more opaque. Hawk stood there, mesmerized. It was turning into some strange kind of flame beast. Sama and Phantom rushed up behind Hawk and instantly knew they weren't getting out any time soon. Orange-yellow ooze was sliding down the mountain still, threatening to engulf…the flame was taking shape now…it was growing limbs, basically turning into a blob-shaped beast. It turned on Hawk with green glowing spots that could only be recognized as eyes. Phantom stared at it with the widest of all eyes. "The beast long sealed away…" Hawk caught among his muttering and stammering. There was nothing else to do. Hawk drew the Lazuli Blade with his concentration and prepared to fight. The flame bore down upon him, then suddenly whipped its arm sideways sending a horizontal strip of orange flame at the trio. Phantom dodged aside, Sama stood his ground, allowing the flame to pass through him with minimal damage. Hawk desperately whipped his glowing blue blade around randomly, seemingly blocking the flames. Hawk outstretched his arm suddenly, whipping out a bolt of lightning, which seemed to have an effect on the fiery foe…it flinched slightly and stepped backwards. It raised its arms, clasped them together. Hawk leapt aside just as those two arms crashed down on the rocky earth, leaving a boiling yellow puddle in its place. Phantom had teleported to the other side of the lava pool. Hawk drew out the Lazuli Blade again and sent it at his foe, levitating it…the ability Hawk had used to defeat his brother over a month ago…it whipped around inside the beast, creating a blue glow within…but Hawk didn't see it. The large fire man gripped at the blue area…trying to smite the disturbance…but he was getting smaller…weaker…there was another explosion from the mountain's peak and Hawk's concentration was broken. The Lazuli Blade disappeared and the beast glowered down at Hawk angrily...it was only half as tall now…Suddenly Hawk's eyes glowed a dazzling violet, there was a huge clap of thunder as lightning struck the giant flames…then again…then again…the beast was only Hawk's height. Suddenly Hawk realized that he had caused that lightning. He had the power to control it…as soon as he figured out how. The Lazuli Blade must have been cold, too…how else would it have drained half of this monster's power? Hawk whipped it out and drew a straight line through the pool of yellow lava…it worked! The part that the Lazuli Blade had drawn through had turned to rock. Before it could melt again, Hawk dashed across it and he, Sama and Phantom ran for freedom…the lava had reached the base of the mountain in some points now…and judging by the constant explosions and lava flinging out the top of the mountain, it would still be going for a while.

*****

Nambuk slowly set two iced-chocolate drinks on the coffee table, one for him, one for Suga, who was sitting on the couch, and glanced up at the TV that his hedgehog girlfriend was transfixed on…it was certainly odd, the night had been fairly cool before, but now it was a hot night…10 degrees to 25 in less than half an hour…Nambuk sat happily down on the couch next to the pink hedgie and started watching the spontaneous news flash, showing footage of a exploding volcano, lava reaching about halfway down it…and then there were two flashes of lightning, both striking in the same place. Nambuk glanced to Suga, who already seemed to know what he was about to say. "I'm wondering the same thing." She said concernedly. That mountain hadn't even been known as a volcano until just now…

***** 

If anyone in the town who were watching the eruption from the gates had looked behind them, they would have seen it. A shadow slinking along a rooftop, heading for the nearest chimney and wearing all black. The eruption sent everybody outside, which meant that none were in their houses…it was the perfect time to steal some valuables…natural disasters were so handy! But…what was up with the lightning? Something weird was going down…and that wasn't what was entering a chimney…

*****

Bright red light just over the horizon. What was that about? Minimaniac pondered as he ran forward, trying to get a better view, unobscoured by buildings. There was a flash reaching across the sky as he ran. What the heck was going on!? Then he reached the top of the hill and stood, in the middle of the road, beholding. If this wasn't really weird it would be a magnificent sight to behold…but it was suddenly quite hot, Mini realized. He pried his jacket from his shoulders to let a little fresh air in. Suddenly he realized something-those red flashes…the red glow emanating from somewhere just beyond the horizon…was in the direction that Hawk had been heading…and about where he would have reached by now, too…Hawk was involved. Plain and simple. _If only I could tell KK I was going and go! He thought. _But…she's expecting me…if I disappear now she'll be scared out of her mind for me…no, Hawk's capable. He'll be fine._ And coming to his senses, he quickly jogged down the hill, his eye on the spectacular sight of the flashes._

*****

Eagle rolled down the side of the mountain, the one part that was safe: the west side. It had a barrier of rock that would hold the lava for a while…but the entire scene was engulfed in red light. He had failed. Failed in the one duty he had placed upon himself. Protecting the mysterious sphere of ice…he had understood the prophecy. One is taken, its rival flourishes. The orb was there to keep the fire beast sealed away under the mountain. There were others…three others, the whereabouts of which he didn't know except for their general directions. All he could do was keep moving, rolling down the slope. There was still the ability to fix what had just been destroyed, it would be difficult, but still possible…_I just hope I can do it in time…he thought. But for this point in time, he would have to quick-smart get to the Squall on the next mountain…_

*****

"Kawaii, have you heard about the eruption and the lightning flashes?" Mini asked, getting right to the point.

"That was just on the news…it was broadcasting from the nearby town…" The purple Kitsune answered.

"That's where Bluehawk, Sama and Phantom were headed. It's also about where they would be by now." Mini half-interrupted.

KK didn't reply in speech, but simply looked back at him, wide-eyed. She didn't know any of them well, but that didn't really matter. Hawk was Mini's friend, so that naturally sparked much more concern than it would if it was someone she'd never heard of. "What are you saying? They're in trouble or they're involved somehow?"

"Could be either, could be both. If they're involved, they couldn't have caused it deliberately. An unknown factor is in there somewhere…I just hope it has nothing to do with-" He cut himself off, just in time. Hawk didn't want anyone to know about his brother…_At least I don't think he would… Mini thought._

KK raised an eyebrow. There was something she wasn't supposed to know, and she had twigged. Mini stood there, anxiously. _No, She thought. __Mini wouldn't keep secrets of himself from me. It's something to do with Hawk and his friends. And so she decided not to pry. "So, what are you suggesting? We go after them?"_

Mini thought for a second, brushing some sweat off his forehead. "Maybe. I'm just worried…if there are two things Hawk fears, it's flames and heights. He will have been forced to face both tonight, as well as a powerful adversary." Mini was sure…that Hawk's brother was back.

*****

Hawk kept on running, followed closely by Phantom and Sama, away from the mountain that looked like a giant blaze of fire, lighting the entire landscape. The lava had blocked them and forced them to detour right round to the other side. They couldn't get back to the town for a while as the pass was blocked. At least the mountain had stopped exploding…but it looked as though it was still pumping out lava, forcing them to keep moving…the townspeople would be fine, the lava was coming out slow now. It would reach them by morning, but they would have plenty of time to escape. There was no wind whatsoever, Hawk noticed as he stopped for Sama and Phantom to have a breather. Sama's mind seemed completely unharmed by the events. Anyone else would take a while to take in the idea that they had a clone that had been around for more than a year. Sama seemed to think nothing of it. "C'mon, guys. We have to put as much ground as possible between us and the-" suddenly there was a loud boom coming from the volcano and there was a new fountain of glowing red lava spurting out the top. Phantom reacted by immediately starting to run off again. Hawk gave a sly grin. Fear was an amazing motivation at times…hopefully it would be a while to the next town, but not too long-far enough so that it was safe, close enough for Phantom and Sama to survive the trip…they ran across flat grass with the occasional tree. The landscape was easy to understand, but then again it felt like they were getting nowhere…then Hawk had an idea. He felt the power drain out of him as the chaos emerald formed in his hand. He gave it to Phantom, who was puffing…and suddenly he seemed to have all the energy he needed. Then he passed it to Sama, who in turn passed it to Hawk, who instantly noticed a change in pace…they had regained their strength. "C'mon. Let's see if there are any towns nearby." Hawk urged. "We might find one just over that hill, or even beside it!"

*****

A young squirrel boy peeked over the top of the fence that surrounded his village and was amazed and terrified at what he saw. So that was what the fuss was about? An erupting volcano? He looked down at the plain to see three figures making haste for the town. The area around the mountain itself had been drenched in rock. Hawk looked up at the village he hadn't noticed the night before: It had been hidden in the shadows. But there it was, in plain view…dang, he was hungry. The trio reached the top of the hill as the sky was starting to go grey from all the smoke. It was much darker a day than usual, and hardly surprising…"The gate's closed." Phantom grimaced. 

"To think that towns still use gates…" Hawk muttered. 

Skeeter hovering at his ear, Hawk pounded on the gate with his fist. "Let us in!"

"No!" came the reply.

Hawk stepped back slightly. "Why not? We just need a place to stop for food, then we can go!"

The keeper of the gate didn't reply for a few seconds, then he shouted "Go away!"

Hawk gave the others a put out expression. Paladin and Skeeter had already eaten all of their provisions, so there was no food left. Suddenly Phantom wasn't there anymore and there was a cry from the other side of the gate. "Whattaya think you're-" in seconds, Phantom Falcon was being thrown over the fence, and landed face down in the mud with a splat. Sama helped him up by the shoulders and he just lay there, letting the mud drip off his face, before shaking his head. "What's the point? C'mon, let's go guys." Phantom suggested. It was the only choice they had, they couldn't just sit there, waiting for someone to let them in. That was mad! Not only would it waste time, but they would waste away. So on they moved, leaving the still-erupting volcano behind them.

*****

Minimaniac gave a relieved sigh as he broke out of the forest and into the town, in which most of the buildings were one, by the looks, followed closely by KawaiiKitsune, and that was when they noticed the mountain. It was still spurting lava…and some of it had come seriously close to the town…but it had all stopped at a certain point, before turning to rock. He was going to have to examine that later…for one thing, he and KK needed some food and a breather… "You ok?" Mini asked his girlfriend.

 "I'm…*puff* fine…" she replied, catching her breath.

_Hope the natives are friendly…_Mini thought to himself, walking between the houses. There was no-one outside, strangely, and no-one had fled, either by the looks. They were all locking up their windows and doors, from what he could see inside. KK followed closely behind him nervously, occasionally shifting her jacket slightly. Her eyes started to wander absently as she followed behind Minimaniac…there was a monument further down the road, the symbol of which was hard to define due to the heat causing the light to become distorted…then she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye. Then she looked again. Nothing there. _I could've sworn there was someone running…_then she went to catch up with Minimaniac, who was standing on the cobblestone, facing the monument, and looking around cautiously. "Someone…is watching us." He said, not averting his gaze from the rooftops. The town was eerily silent, but there was no doubt. There was someone nearby…watching…watching…watching… "DOWN!" Mini screamed, diving upon his girlfriend in protection, sending both of them to the ground at the same time that there was a loud bang from the left facing the monument, like that of a gun, and a bullet hit the cobblestones with a ping noise. White dust rose gradually from the ground as Minimaniac helped Kawaii Kitsune up and they rushed to the left wall, where the sniper, in his or her position, couldn't hit them, and stood there leaning on the hot wall, panting. That had been a close call…Then KK saw it again. A silhouetted figure, running across the rooftops in front of them…it was hard to define, so she didn't bother to share it with her boyfriend…it was too trivial at a time like this. 

*****

Hawk, Sama and Phantom simply kept going, walking along a huge grassy plain away from the volcano. It wasn't such a pretty sight anymore, basically just a mountain with huge blobs of glowing yellow to red on it and splashing out the top. Funnily enough there was a complete lack of earthquakes…it had a lot to do with that old legend, it seemed…the power of fire…that was what was causing that mountain to keep on spurting…it could go on forever for al they knew…and what was that thing, the thing he had faced on the way down? Some kind of flame beast…but was it something long sealed away, or something that simply liked flames? The answers would have to wait…hopefully not for too long. The current priority was getting away from the volcano, then they would figure out where they were and where they would go…but where had Black Eagle gone, in his haste to escape? Probably to the town of humans, left far behind them now…a more important task seemed to lie in finding the rest of the orbs…the cloaked one and Sama's clone couldn't have only taken it to cause the eruption…


	4. The Subterrestrials

**Chapter 4:      The Sub-terrestrials**

The blue armadillo looked around as he, in Hawk's vehicle, moved steadily through the air, over the town of humans. He couldn't see Hawk, Sama or Phantom anywhere…_Just my luck…_he thought to himself. _They're probably inside the inn, unaware that the volcano will inevitably consume the town…_but there was something funny about how the lava had turned to rock all at one certain point…and the rock seemed to be making its way around a certain radius, but not into, of the town. It was almost as if…suddenly Eagle spotted a green hedgehog and what looked like a purple fox leaning against a wall…this was interesting. At this, he turned slightly downward, to get a closer look if he could. _Now HE looks familiar…_Eagle thought to himself. He drew in closer and got a glimpse of the sunglasses and purple on the quills. _Yep, that's the guy._ He thought to himself. Suddenly there was the noise of a ricocheting bullet from the wing, as well as a spark. There was a hole in the wing. _Ah, shoot…The plane tilted to the right slowly and steadily, Eagle attempted correction but suddenly the plane flipped right over and started spinning. Minimaniac looked up from his and KK's hiding spot, where the sniper couldn't hit them. The plane that had flown over them was spinning around madly. KK let out a cry of surprise at a bang that erupted as the front engine caught fire…_Just a bit…further…_Eagle thought to himself, eyes half-closed to keep out the smoke and dust expelling from the motor. Breaching the limits of the town he sent the plane straight at the ground, prioritizing his own safety over the plane's front end. Impacting on the ground, the plane threw him straight out of his seat, face first towards the ground and the mud. There was a boom, a wave of heat, and then the simple noise of burning flames. "Well, we know the sniper's still there." Mini shrugged, leaning against the wall. KK smiled slightly, what he said was humorous, but not enough to make her laugh right now. _

******  
  


Hawk looked behind him at a _whoof noise. He had been right, Phantom had teleported. Sama looked at his ex-position blankly, knowing what had happened but without capacity to react. Hawk looked up at the trees above them. There seemed to be no Phantom there. He would take a while to find…Hawk shrugged and kept moving forward. It was dark in the forest, there was a thick canopy above them. The flap on his backpack was lifted slowly as Skeeter took another peek at the outside world. He had been unhappy about the prospect of leaving the backpack ever since the initial eruption, and fair enough too. That had been a stressful experience for all involved. Sama grunted loudly. There was the sound of running water ahead. Hawk jogged forward, throwing leaves and branches aside, and indeed found a rather peaceful river…too peaceful. Picturesque. There were no trees beyond it, and the trees were thick on their side. There was no bridge though. Suddenly there was a loud splash from Hawk's right as Sama fell in face-first. Bluehawk muttered to himself as he groped around in the water for a hold on Sama to pull him out…but there was no Sama there. Nothing. Just mud…dirt…weeds…He stood up slowly, wondering what the heck had just happened. What __had just happened!? Sama had fallen in the water and vanished. Hawk looked around. There was nothing else for it. He crouched and, with no further ado, jumped forward, before feeling the sudden chill of being in a body of water…but that didn't last. Suddenly he was dry again…everything was spinning. But then a blurred image came before him. Dirt. Dirt. Dirt. Then things became clearer…He was in some sort of cave, the walls, roof, and floor were 100% dirt. He started to look around. Unless that river was randomized teleportation, Sama would be nearby. That was unless something had already-suddenly he heard a shout. "No! Last time I did I got in truh-boll!" That was Sama, alright. "I'm hungry!" Came the cry again. Hawk peeked around the corner to see what was going on. A pair of…what looked like moles were checking Sama's pockets for money…well, one of them was. _

"WUGGLE!" came a muffled cry. They were taking Paladin! Hawk leapt from his hiding place with an OI! The two mole thugs looked up, startled. Suddenly they pulled out guns, similar to Hawk's own. _Great. He thought. _Gunfight! _Before the others could blink, two shots had been fired from Hawk's gun and he was back behind his wall. _No worry of hitting Sama…_Hawk thought sarcastically. _His head would make the bullets bounce off!_ Before long he was being pounded with pebbles, coming from the corner he was standing by, and loud bangs. He had to conserve ammo, or he'd run out sometime soon. He checked the magazine, only 8 bullets left. He pulled out the chaos emerald and concentrated intensely. __Hand…to hand… quickly, feeling a crackle in his other hand, he jumped out of his hiding place and extended his palm. **Pychark! Pychark! Hawk gulped and looked at his hand…it was smoking…that wasn't the attack he had intended the use of. He was expecting seven glowing chaos bolts to shoot from his palm…instead he had attacked with lightning bolts. But there was no time to think about that, Sama was okay, Paladin hugging his neck. Sama slowly got up. "Do moles ever eat?" Sama asked.**_

Bluehawk nodded. "Will that surgically enlarged brain of yours ever live up to its size?" Sama didn't reply. "C'mon, let's get outta here."

*****

The streets were silent now, dusk was coming on. The sniping teenage fox lowered his gun. A job well done, hopefully his point would be made. He looked to the right, the column of smoke that had been the plane that flew past. But there was something funny about it…those yellow sparks weren't coming from the motor…then suddenly there was a flash. This certainly kept the white fox's eyes to the spot…what was-suddenly a yellow streak shot out of the wreckage…running toward the town…_running!?_ It leapt up…straight toward him…and he was suddenly overwhelmed by thudding pain…Minimaniac looked up to the sound of extreme screams…suddenly a white furry was flung over the roof, beyond the next street…and the next, it seemed…his eyes goggled…he looked to his right, where KK was…she was reacting the same way, but finding it more difficult to come to her senses. Suddenly a dark blue armadillo dropped down beside Mini. "Hey, pal…what's wrong?" Mini asked calmly. Eagle was puffing, absolutely stressed out. 

"What…did I just do!?"

"Erm…was that you? Who just…?"

"Just WHAT!?"

"Threw that…guy…beyond the town?"

Eagle cringed. KK and Mini exchanged worried glances. "Shoot…" Eagle whimpered finally. "I gotta go find Hawk…"

"Waitaminute! You know Bluehawk?" KK burst out.

Eagle looked back as he had turned to walk off. "You know him?"

"He's a friend of mine." Minimaniac stated.

"Same. And the wall is my fault." Black Eagle sighed. "I allowed Hawk to deactivate the barrier…and then…cloaked guy took the orb…"

Mini and KK exchanged glances again. "Come with us." KK finally suggested, and she and Minimaniac took off in the direction of the towering wall of rock.

"Wait!" Eagle cried, before they could get far. "We'll never get through that way. It'll take some time, but I have a way better option." 

"How long?" Minimaniac asked as he jogged back to Eagle.

"A few days…two weeks tops."

*****

Bluehawk looked behind him, where Sama wasn't moving fast to follow. "Come on! We have to get-" 

"I smell!" Sama suddenly cried out, then went to follow Hawk. "My smell and hungry!"

Hawk groaned. "We have to get out of-"

Suddenly they both heard footsteps…running, well, jogging anyway, in their direction from ahead of them. Hawk lashed a hand out to stop Sama from speaking, then readied his own gun. Then the figure came around the corner.

"PHAN-"

"SSSHH!" There was a sudden silence between the three of them. Phantom mimed cutting his throat with an agonized expression. "I don't know where we are, but whatever race we've bumped into it's hostile to visitors!"

"What do you suggest?" 

"I suggest we get out of here. How did you guys get here, anyway?"

"Some river…Sama fell in and disappeared, I followed."

"I teleported into the river…for all we know this could be an alternate dimension."

Hawk's face brightened up for a second, then he realized the implications of what Phantom meant. It was possible that if they were in an alternate dimension, and they could well have been, they might never get back to Dimension Prime. Suddenly Hawk felt a vibration. Then there were more vibrations and the earthquake was obvious. Phantom toppled backwards as a clump of dirt dropped out from the roof in a cloud of dust. Sama fell straight over, Hawk teeter-tottered from side to side and braced his balance as another clump of dirt came lose behind him…but this one was followed by a huge clump. The vibrations finally stopped and the way backward was blocked. Hawk punched the air. "Shoot. Even if there was a chance of getting back via the river…" he suddenly stopped at the rumble of his own gut. 

"Guess the only way out is in…" Phantom sighed, brushing off his pants.

"I like race." Sama boasted. 

Bluehawk peeked over the cliff at the city below…who would dig out that much earth!? Phantom pointed at another opening at the other side. "We have to get over there, hopefully that's our way out of here so we can figure out just where we are…and whether we're in Prime or not."

Hawk shuddered. "And…what do they do to strangers?"

"Do I even need to tell you? Let's just say they got some heavy weapons down there!"

"If it heavy, then I carry!" Sama said usefully. "I want food." Hawk again started regretting bringing the chao along, they ate all the food and never left the backpacks. Hawk turned to his right to make his way down the ramp from the cliff, followed by Sama and then Phantom. They reached the bottom of the ramp to hit dead flat earth, and Hawk stopped for a second, to let the others catch up. "Well, so far so goo-" Suddenly everything was going slowly. Hawk looked in front of him. There was a bullet coming right for the between of his eyes. Quickly he ducked, hoping that neither of the others was right behind him. He straightened up, time reverting to normal, suddenly realizing that he had his hand in his pocket, where the chaos emerald was. "DOWN!" Phantom cried, bringing Hawk to his senses. More shots were being aimed at them. Suddenly the rapid-fire ceased and there was a shout of annoyance, before a few clicks began. "Split up! We all know where to head to!" At that Hawk ran, chaos emerald in tow, straight toward the nearest street. He ducked slightly to avoid another volley of bullets. Anticipating prediction as he leapt up to avoid more shots, he quickly grabbed a lamp post as he floated by, swung around it once and let fly in a new direction, diagonal to his previous direction and heading for a concrete wall. Still avoiding path prediction, he leapt up again upon contact with the ground, again avoiding orange sparks and ping noises. His feet hit the wall first. Then his fingers, and then it all left the wall as he kicked off from it and spotted a gattling-gun dome. Before anyone could say 'holy sh-' he fired with his own gun directly at one of the barrels and the next shot it tried to make was a fireball in the wrong direction. He crouched, looking downwards, gun pointed upwards, for a few seconds as he let his emerald recharge. _Hope the others are doing okay…_

Phantom again appeared in a new location, just above where he had been, just away from the last few shots of a mole machine-gunner. _Oh, if only I had Hawk's emerald! Phantom thought to himself as he zigzagged down the hill. Suddenly there was a loud noise, a mix between a _whoosh_ and a _whiz_, going straight over his head…suddenly his feet were landing on someone's back…he was on a wide, rounded-top hovering device! He realized as the mole he kicked off grabbed onto a spear missile on the front to prevent from falling. Phantom was surfing through the air, there was no other description. __Heh heh…Phantom commandeered the vehicle upwards as suddenly as he could while still letting his feet grip to it, and he suddenly realized he'd done a full backflip just after he noticed the mole drop off. Now it was just a direct route to the destination! _WHOO!__

Sama ran as fast as his legs would carry him down the hill, a trail of bullets-in-use all landing just behind him. But he didn't realize this. _Go to cave! Go to cave!_ He looked upwards as he realized that the whoosh noise to his upper-left had changed frequency. There was a scream as the mole clinging on to that weird bird was flung off. Sama landed straight on his muzzle, and lost about half of his air as the mole landed directly on top of him and took the bullets. As soon as the gunfire stopped, Sama was back on his previous course.

Bluehawk grabbed the opportunity that presented itself to him in the form of a clothesline and gripped the shirt tightly, allowing it to swing him upwards and allow the two ground vehicles to pass underneath him. He swung back onto the bridge and dashed right before jumping onto the roof of the building that was now on his left, to run along the joined roofs. The next set of roofs was a bit lower, so another jump fixed the distance, and the same with the next, and the next, and the next. _Way too easy…_he thought to himself…then suddenly a white streak flew past behind him, followed by a deep rumble a few seconds later. They were bringing out the big guns. Hawk leapt to the next set of roofs and was startled as he jumped straight through a hot white streak, and a few seconds later, as he jumped the next gap, the previous one was rained on with dirt. He was at least halfway by now…

Phantom suddenly realized he was aiming straight for the cave through which the gang intended to get through…he was going to block it off in two ways like that! He turned down slightly, aiming for the bottom of the cliff which they all intended to climb. That was when he realized he didn't know how to stop! 

Sama just kept on running, like he'd been told to do. _Go to cave! Go to cave! He was getting fairly close, but he didn't care. All he cared was to get there. _

Bluehawk ran desperately down the final stretch, away from those who were firing at him from the other end of the street…still avoiding prediction, he leapt up sideways for a midair cartwheel and landed on a shop's stall shade, bounced upwards, hit the wall, kicked off it…suddenly he found himself landing dead on top of a skateboard. _Awesome! No fees! Realizing that he was almost a sitting duck, he quickly decided to start zigzagging while allowing his emerald to recharge. He was almost home free! _

Having finally managed to hold his new glider in position, Phantom waited halfway up the cliff, simply hovering there. Suddenly he saw a white streak heading down a road in his general direction, but obviously not aimed at him. Not hitting its target, it kept going and hit the wall about 15 metres below Phantom. Then another did the same thing. They were firing at Bluehawk…but there were no streaks anywhere else…meaning…There and then, Phantom decided to go help out. 

Bluehawk went straight past Sama on his borrowed skateboard, and realized that there may be something he could do to help Sama's exhaustion. He pulled out his emerald. It was slightly dimmed as he held it, but nevertheless… "Sama! Catch!"  Sama didn't know what he was catching, but he caught the emerald all the same and suddenly put on a burst of speed before throwing it back to Hawk. Suddenly Hawk spotted the silvery object headed straight towards them. This wasn't a bother. Whatever it was would be easy to take care of…but suddenly whatever it was came further into view…_Phantom!_ Quickly he swooped in and grabbed Sama's arm, pulling him onto the strange glider, and then they both flew off. Bluehawk was quickly brought to his senses by a white streak that missed him by inches. 

"Alright! Let's go!" 

Sama was the first to enter the cave, then Bluehawk…and suddenly they were both thrown forward in the force of an explosion. Bluehawk lifted his head and bitterly spat out the dust. "You guys okay?" Phantom outstretched his hand to help Hawk up. 

"You teleported." Bluehawk grinned.

"I want water." Sama cried spontaneously. 

Bluehawk sighed. "And let's just hope this ain't some dead end!"  Sama coughed. Meanwhile, the moles of the city moved to inspect their handiwork…those intruders were goners…

The passage reached a long way, but, the blue fox noticed, it was one straightforward path unlike the maze they had encountered earlier. Hawk stopped, reacting to Sama stopping. "Ground shake I do!" hawk rolled his eyes, then suddenly he felt it. Sama was right, another quake was coming on. Hawk crouched to the ground to brace, Phantom did the same, and Sama fell forwards on top of Hawk. Rocks and dirt clods fell from the ceiling, but Hawk simply got up and brushed himself off. "C'mon, can't be too far." Hawk (without the emerald's power) ran forward and around a corner, when suddenly he felt a breeze…which smelled quite stale. "Phantom! Do you recognize that smell?"

Phantom sniffed. "No, I don't…do you?"

"No…but it smells…somewhat familiar…possibly during my secret service days, I-" He cut himself short as he felt the earth vibrating again…but the main rumbling seemed to be coming from up ahead. Bluehawk went to speak, but thought better of it. No, even Sama would recognize _that as an insult. No, he simply continued forward, but keeping his footsteps quieter now so as to avoid whatever was up ahead from hearing. There was no use in going back, the passage would be blocked in multiple places by now…but that gave rise to the question of this strange wind…He turned his head around the corner and stepped back at what he saw. Another huge cavern had been dug out…but this looked seriously unnatural, and even from the distance it looked fairly new…He jogged up to the hole in the wall in which their tunnel hung…it was a long way down…but what was the statue down there? It looked even more recently put there than anything else, yet so old…Hawk grabbed his own chaos emerald and leapt down, dimming the gem slightly as he hit the ground as its energy protected him from injury. The statue was of what looked like a highly-mutated turtle-like creature…no, more like some kind of ancient dinosaur fossil…but it had a shell on its back which looked like it would allow it to curl up…and it had horns on the front, one over its nose…it was standing on its hind legs, in an upright position, looked like it was roaring, lashing out with its sharp-tipped tongue. Suddenly the statue's eyes glowed a topaz colour…Phantom looked upon it from his and Sama's hole in the wall. "I know…what that is…" He gulped. Suddenly the stone layer over the creature shattered. Hawk quickly shielded his eyes, gripping the chaos emerald tightly in case some kind of unexpected lash grabbed it. No such lash came, but the statue was no longer so. The hulking shelled-creature's bright blue eyes bore down upon Hawk menacingly. Hawk stepped back, gripping his emerald, concentrating, when suddenly seven brightly coloured streaks shot out of his hand in different places, almost simultaneously. The creature reared its head in a roar-like shriek as the streaks collided with it. Quickly manipulating its shell, it curled and rolled at breakneck speed on the spot before suddenly gaining traction…Hawk leapt out of the way just in time before it slammed into the wall, bringing down a few stalactites from the ceiling with a few crashes. It uncurled itself, glared at Hawk and suddenly disappeared in an explosion-like burst of dust and clods of dirt. Hawk looked around desperately. Where was it? Suddenly he was thrown into the air…and landed rump-first on solid ground…dazed, he looked around…he was on a perfectly square pillar of earth. More such pillars were popping up all 'round him until they formed a flat surface. Then there was another dusty burst and the creature was back with another shriek. Hawk looked up to Phantom and Sama for reassurance. They were still there, watching the battle hopelessly. Suddenly Hawk realized he had to again move out of the way as the creature came at him again…with all his concentration, Hawk concentrated on the emerald. Suddenly, just as the creature was passing Hawk's airborne form, it worked. The Lazuli Blade jutted straight out of Hawk's hand and pierced the beast's shell, making no noise except for the creature's higher-pitched shriek. It disappeared in another dust burst and pillars like earlier popped up in a row as a wave…the wave seemed to bounce from the wall and come straight at him…another wave began from another point in the room…Hawk rolled sideways, avoiding a jutting pillar by inches, before being thrown into the air by a separate wave…Hawk hit the ground with a painful thud…_Hey, what th-? MY EMERALD!_ Hawk looked around desperately before seeing the yellow glint in the air being caught by Phantom. _Great…_But then the unexpected happened. The beast returned in its usual dust burst…and then suddenly Hawk heard Sama cry out. He looked up for any sign of hope…and instantly got more than he was after. A blazing shape of light tore through the air, its heat even Hawk at his lack of height could sense…passed straight through the great shelled creature, bounced up, faded, then shot back down and repeated. Piercing shrieks ensued, forcing Hawk to block his ears with his fingers…and soon the creature keeled over and twisted itself into the ground. The ground shook, and Hawk felt like he was being pushed against it…wait, no…he was rising. The ground was rising. Before long it had reached the same level as the two tunnels on either side of the hollowed out area. "Let's just go." Hawk told Sama and Phantom. Both nodded as Phantom passed the emerald back to Hawk. _

_Sunlight!_ Hawk thought happily. _We've reached sunlight!_ Phantom walked out of the tunnel into the dazzling light and shielded his eyes…they had all grown so accustomed to the dank caverns that the light seemed too much. Hawk didn't need to do this, for one thing they were under a tree and secondly he had his sunglasses on like always. Sama didn't react at all, except to say "Can we have food? I want drink." Hawk looked around. "Where are we?"

Phantom stopped. This looked familiar…"I can still smell a little of what we smelled before, Hawk. If my calculations are correct…" Suddenly he took off to see if he could see anything around the side of the hill. Hawk looked back to Sama. "Do you have any cheese?" Sama grunted stupidly. Hawk suddenly decided on a course of action, which was going to Sama's backpack and opening it. Sure enough, there was an unfortunate little yellow chao in there, sitting in the bag, shaking. Hawk reached in to lift him out as Sama tried to turn around. "Can I see?" He kept asking. "I want see!" Paladin weakly lifted himself out of Hawk's hands and tried to jump back up at Sama's backpack. _As soon as we find a town…_suddenly he heard a distressed cry from Phantom. "ARGH! I KNEW IT!" Sama immediately took off after him, Hawk was soon to follow, without the use of his emerald, although unlike Phantom they took a shorter route over a short slope. Suddenly Bluehawk stopped as he reached the top. There was a black area of ground on the horizon that looked somewhat artificial…it was smoking…then Hawk was able to make out what it was. A ruined city. Quickly he made his way to where Sama and Phantom were now standing. Phantom simply stared at the black area. "The city we're looking at was destroyed about 25 years ago." Phantom stated. "Not even the chimeras know what it was that allowed this to happen, although some witnessed the whole thing." He took a breath, then went on. "Somewhere over in that direction used to be a tower…naturally created of rock. Apparently sometimes you could see the winds swirling around it, which they did continuously. There was a city below it, and many citizens were hired by the royal family to guard that tower…but the city was mysteriously invaded some 25 years ago, by an army of strange, shadow people…they wanted the sphere." Hawk suddenly remembered the ice mountain incident, the volcano. 

"Was it like that one-?"

"Yeah, it was like that ice one…columns of earth shot up, tossing the city like a salad, and there is what remains. Not even the pedestal tower still stands, but I never saw this place with my own eyes…"

Bluehawk looked away along the plain on which they stood. Finally he thought of a decent question. "Where are we, then? We're in our own dimension?" 

"Seems so. I think we're exactly North-West of the exploding mountain…well, almost, anyway."

Sama grunted. "Hun-greeeee!"

Hawk nodded. "Where's the nearest STANDING town?"

"Erm…" 

"Great. We're starving and we can't even find a damn town!" Sama suddenly took off in the direction of the cave. "What th-?"

"He smells something!!!" cried Phantom. 

Hawk didn't need a seconder to that notion.

*****

Finally, Sama reached the top of yet another hill and looked to his pursuers. Hawk was gripping his emerald as usual, but not using speed boosts. Finally, Hawk reached the top following Phantom, to see exactly what he wanted to see. A row of houses and a dirt road. It wasn't the best of sights, but it was a huge relief. Sama sniffed. "Pasty!" 

Hawk nodded. "Pastry. Let's go, gang!"

As fast as they could all go, they raced down the hill toward the row of houses. Surely they'd have food and shelter spare? Hawk suddenly realized his mouth was watering even at the thought of eating tomatoes. Before he even knew it he was knocking on the first door. A shuffling noise was heard from inside, then finally the door opened slowly and a large, brown male rabbit stood in the doorway.

"Sorry to disturb you, but we've been wandering for a while, looking for a town…would you please spare us some provisions or point us to where we can get some?" Phantom asked politely as possible.

The rabbit in front of the teenage group looked over them, seeming to have trouble seeing them, but then suddenly he started when he saw Bluehawk. He went to say something, then thought better of it. "Come in, young ones." His voice seemed aged, yet not so aged. The tone was like that of one of 80 years experience, yet the sound was that of a forty-year old. Bluehawk entered first and slowly, before urging Sama to touch nothing. Phantom entered nervously, hoping he wouldn't teleport into something. "Sit down, boys…what are your names?"

"Call me Hawk, this is Sama and Phantom."

Sama grunted. Phantom said "Hi!" the rabbit nodded. 

"My name is Graim. Are you boys hungry?"

Sama suddenly started nodding furiously. He left the room, and Bluehawk was suddenly left wondering why he was treating them with such trust…he had given a start when he saw Bluehawk, too…soon he came back with some bread rolls, and who were the starving blokes to complain?

Bluehawk sat up in his bed, his head on his knee. He had never been in the area before, yet this rabbit man was treating him like an old friend. Sama mumbled from the bed on the other side of the room. Bluehawk suddenly felt immensely fatigued and flopped to his pillow, instantly asleep. 


	5. Reunion

Chapter 5 : Reunion 

"Alright!" Eagle cried triumphantly. "The plane should be usable now!" He said to Minimaniac and Kawaii Kitsune. "But I'd like to spend another day making it user-friendly. It should work, but it'll be fairly unsafe and hard to use."

Minimaniac nodded sleepily. "We'd better find a place to stay…what's wrong, KK?"

Kawaii Kitsune didn't hear him…she was staring at the small group which was wandering toward the forest with a cart…they were going there in the middle of the night? She shook suspicious thoughts out of her head and slowly turned back to Mini and Eagle. "You okay?" Mini asked again.

"Fine…" 

*****

Bluehawk suddenly woke up again, his fur wet with sweat. It was a fairly cool night before…something wasn't right. He looked to Sama, who was tossing and turning. "Huht…hot…owchi!" Something wasn't right all of a sudden…something evil had just happened…somewhere…

*****

Mini sat bolt upright at the sounds of shouts. KK was awake too, he could hear hurried footsteps in the room next to him. Eagle had already left the room. Quickly he put on his shoes, pants and jacket and hurried outside, realizing how hot it was. KawaiiKitsune was walking just ahead of him. He looked to the right, toward the volcano…a fresh river of lava was running furiously down the side of the mountain toward the town…Mini and KK just stood there watching, same as a group of humans a bit in front of them…there seemed to have been a strange barrier around the town earlier, so this river would probably reach the end of the rock and stop…it was gushing down to that level…the red glow came closer and closer to the edge…and it didn't stop. It poured down over the edge of the rock and kept going. "RUN!!!" Mini cried. Before he had even finished his word KK was pulling him in the opposite direction of the danger. The town was getting engulfed. The local humans were in an absolute panic. Why shouldn't they be? There was a huge river of lava gushing straight through the town, engulfing everything in its path. But even Minimaniac couldn't run fast enough…it would catch them eventually…it was already halfway through the town when they had reached about three quarters of the way out…suddenly Mini heard a whirring above him…and then a cool, calm hand grabbed his as he held KK's. They rose into the air, above the lava, but feeling an intense blast of heat as it passed under them…all of the humans in the town had been instantly killed. KK allowed tears to drop into the stream of molten rock, Minimaniac showed no emotion, blocking it all out for the time being. Suddenly he realized he was being hoisted up, into the plane. "Nice save." He finally said to Black Eagle as KK climbed to the top wing. Eagle didn't respond. He didn't even hear him. 

The humans did this to you, and yet you pity for their plight? No! The people who died tonight were perfectly innocent! 

_Ah yes. But they all care too much about knowledge, power, wealth…they care nothing for any other._

_Some do, some don't. The many shouldn't suffer for the sins of few._

_You control much wisdom. Was it they who made you so?_

_Who are you?_

_Even one who knows will never know…I was born in the absence of light…I remain so._

At that, the voice in his head ceased. Eagle, relieved, puffed onto the gears. 

"You okay?" Minimaniac asked, realizing his girlfriend was asleep on the top wing. 

"Fine…fine…"

Mini looked back to the destruction behind them. Why had whatever barrier protected them failed? Why had it been there in the first place? Maybe Bluehawk knew the answers…

"We're gonna go around the mountain, you guys, then we're going to head North, I think that's where Hawk was headed." Minimaniac nodded in reply.

*****

"Sir…"

"Please, Hawk. Call me Graim."

"Okay…Graim. Why do you trust us so much? You gave a start when you saw me…do…you know something?"

Graim sighed. "You…bear resemblance to someone I knew…uncanny resemblance…"

"I'm listening."

"Twenty five years ago, after the city was destroyed, two young foxes came through here, stayed here, ate here, and then moved on. You almost look like a clone of one of them…"

Bluehawk nodded. This may have been coincidence…but… "My father?"

Graim nodded. "Possibly."

Suddenly Phantom burst through the door, two chao following him through the air. "Ready to go?"

Bluehawk was frustrated that Phantom had come in just as he was about to discover a lead as to his ancestry, but accepted this unfortunate twist of fate. "Where to?" Hawk asked. 

"Somewhere where we can figure out where we should be going!"

The trio (or group-of-five if you include the chao who were buzzing about behind them) didn't head far before they stopped for a break. "So where exactly are we going?" Hawk finally asked. Sama grunted.

"Not sure. But you were right to leave the city…your hunch was right. Something is up, and as far as I can see it's up to us to stop it."

Bluehawk hrrmed and nodded. Suddenly Hawk realized that Skeeter was trying to lift his backpack…no, he was grabbing at the zip. "Hungry?" Hawk asked. The small blue chao nodded. Hawk decided to give him some nibblies in case he decided to eat everything in there, so he unzipped the top and grabbed out a plastic bag with peanuts in it. He (noisily) grabbed a handful of them and placed them on the ground for the chao to share. Sama stared at them hungrily.

"Not yet, Sama." Phantom told him. Hawk didn't hear this. A shadowy figure was looking at the group from around the hill…those red eyes…the forest shadows? Quickly Hawk got up with a shout and the shadow disappeared. Hawk grabbed his emerald from where he left it on the ground and ran in the direction of the shadowy figure. Phantom and Sama looked up at him. "Where ya goin'?" Phantom asked. Hawk didn't answer. He had to find out what the heck this shadow guy was…but it was running as fast as he was!? Hawk sped up, ran into a dip in the side of the hill, back up again (dimming the emerald a tiny bit) and noticed that he was still the same distance…

Phantom stared at where Hawk had just gone. He just took off…but Phantom decided he was better off remaining where he was. Sama was staring off in the opposite direction…then it all happened extremely quickly. Phantom felt something grab at his neck, and the next moment he was standing next to Sama facing the direction Hawk ran off in…black humanoid figures were groping where Phantom had just been. Sama immediately leapt on top of one of them, pummeling it into the ground while the others went for Phantom, who again teleported to five metres away. He had to save Sama…quickly he rushed directly at their attackers to knock them to the ground…where were the chao? Suddenly he was hit on the head with a hard object and knew no more of the scene.

Bluehawk continued his mad dash to the dark figure, when would it ever let up? It just kept on running…and running…and running…suddenly Hawk whizzed around as something grabbed his shoulder. "Skeeter! What're you-!?"

The black figure was gone. Skeeter was flustering about, panicked. Paladin was flying up from behind, indicating to follow. _Wassamatta? They suddenly flew off back the way Hawk had come from. _Whuh-oh…_Hawk suddenly realized what may have just happened…_

*****

Black Eagle dipped the revamped Squall downward, its energy supply running low. Minimaniac signaled to KawaiiKitsune from the opposite wing. The plane crossed a stream as it reached the edge of a forest, and went for grass plains. It was strange, only a couple of days ago had he been separated from Hawk, Phantom and Sama when they didn't follow him. Now they were nowhere in sight…if they had come this way, they would have been easily visible from above the plains. Eagle decided to change course to the left. 

*****

Hawk had been right. Phantom and Sama were gone, the evidence of some kind of fight strewn all over where they had been. There was a burn mark on the ground, probably where Sama had fought back, and flecks of blood here and there. Skeeter hovered up and sat on Hawk's shoulder, Paladin, who was looking more and more like Sama, sat on the opposite shoulder. Hawk shook his head, then bounced his backpack. Suddenly he remembered…in the forest near SoaH City, he had been attacked by strange, black figures like the one he pursued. Suddenly his chest started hurting. He had broken his ribs that night and never let go of the emerald for more than a minute since…quickly he grabbed the emerald, which he realized was always dimmer than usual recently, but brighter now. Its power had been protecting his ribs…instantly he felt better as it lost some of its shine. What as he to do now, though? Just…sit here, or look hopelessly for a lead? There was only one thing to do. Head back to the row of houses.

*****

_There's the smoke!_ Eagle thought finally. It was nearing dusk, so the sight of what he was looking for was a relief at least. Minimaniac was looking straight downward as he sat on the edge of the wing. KK was looking upwards at the red sky. Eagle turned left about ninety degrees toward a small row of houses that he knew of. _If Hawk ain't there, we're ahead of him…suddenly the engine groaned. _Oh, no…I should have stopped off sooner…_ He could see the row of houses okay, but the engine was conking out. This plane wouldn't glide amazingly well. They were hurtling toward the ground. Mini and KK were looking to Eagle frantically, but his concentration was on the plane, keeping it steady…keeping it steady…the ground was hurtling upwards, faster and faster…but the plane didn't impact with the ground. Minimaniac suddenly had that rising feeling, and extreme dizziness…the plane was gliding. Eagle's eyes looked like they were about to pop! The red lightning was creeping in…then the plane bumped on the ground, then again, then again, before Mini and KK were both suddenly falling off the front. The row of houses was only about a hundred metres away…there was someone coming toward them…_

*****

Bluehawk ran as fast as he could without the emerald toward the plane crash site. If he was right…if he was right…that was his plane. The Squall. He was only halfway to it when he saw those all-too familiar silhouettes. _Minimaniac! KawaiiKitsune! Black Eagle! _"What are you guys doing here?" Hawk shouted happily. 

"Hawk! We found you!" Eagle cried.

"Yo, Hawk! Been lookin' for ya, pal!" Minimaniac said happily, embracing KK.

KK smiled happily. "It's a long story for both factions, I imagine."

Hawk nodded. "Yeah…it is. Come inside."

"I don't run a hotel service!" The brown rabbit chuckled upon Mini, KK and Eagle entering his residence. "But considering the circumstances, you're welcome."

The four of them each said something along the lines of 'Thank you.' Mini looked around. The place was pretty neat…not a spot of mess anywhere except for a single dark stain on the carpet. It wasn't long before each of them told their separate stories.

"…and we decided that there was obviously something big going down, figuring it involved you…"

"…we had to avoid gunfire all the way through a city of moles…"

"…then there was this really fast stream of lava, wiped everything out…"

"…Sama and Phantom…I have no idea where they are now." Bluehawk's chao were both asleep on the floor. Black Eagle finally got up from his chair. "We'll never find those black people now. We'll have to wait until they find us. In the meantime, we either wait here, do nothing, and wait until more bad stuff happens and innocents needlessly lose their lives, we go South-West, to where the globe of flame rests, evacuating any nearby towns and taking it for ourselves to prevent others getting it, or we can hope that Phantom has teleported out of their predicament." 

"I thought I was supposed to be the leader." Bluehawk said smartly. Mini laughed. Eagle grinned.

"It's your decision anyway Hawk, since you brought us all together." If Hawk didn't have fur his cheeks would have gone slightly red. 

"We stay here the night, then we go South-West. It's all we can do."

The others nodded. As if on cue, Graim came in. "Dinner's served!"

Hawk suddenly sat bolt upright. He had been startled awake, he knew it. Then another loud clang echoed through the night. Quickly he got up, whipped on his shirt, shorts, socks and shoes (not forgetting his sunglasses) and ran for the door, making just enough noise to wake up Minimaniac in the next room. The door opened with an eerie creak. The only thing out there was the plain, with a hill not far off, all lit by the bright white moon…Bluehawk took a step forward into the night. Then he suddenly realized where the clang came from. The wreckage of the plane. No, Eagle would need all the parts for tomorrow…but a lot of it seemed to be missing. They'd been hit by thieves. Quickly Hawk started in its direction. But then suddenly he felt something wham into his back, knocking him down. He looked up, gripping the emerald as tightly as possible. A silhouette loomed down upon him, its bright red eyes leering. Quickly Hawk flipped his horizontal form sideways, throwing the freaky thing off. Another appeared behind him as he got up. "YAH!" He cried as he spin-kicked it out of the way. Graim's door opened and Minimaniac ran out. "Hawk!" He cried out. 

"GET THE OTHERS!" Hawk shouted back as he drew the Lazuli Blade and kicked the first shadow in the gut. It recoiled as a third appeared behind Hawk. Quickly he spun himself around, holding out his laser-blade. Dark blood splashed the ground as more started appearing, more and more rapidly. Soon Bluehawk was covered in a mesh of black, red-eyed figures…the Lazuli Blade fizzled out. Bluehawk gripped the emerald as tightly as he could, disallowing its slip…then suddenly he knew no more.  

Pain…searing pain is all Hawk felt in his chest. His broken ribs…he didn't have the chaos emerald with him. "Hawk…there's nothing we can do." Minimaniac sighed from the cell next door. Hawk took the time to stop grunting with agony and start looking around…he hadn't really noticed a buzzing sound, but then he realized he was being kept in by a laser grid. No steel bars, just a laser grid. "Like I said, there's nothing we can do. Before you ask, I have no idea either. I just woke up, same as you." 

"Don't tell me you're despairing." Hawk replied. 

"Err…you hadn't noticed? Eh heh…" 

Hawk cried out, half in shock when another surge of pain hit him. 

"Hawk…there are times when no-one can do anything. That's called inevitability."

Hawk rolled his eyes. "So, no idea who we're captives of, no idea where the others are…"

Suddenly the far wall opened up…strange door. An old-looking yet very small black hedgehog walked in. _What th-? The midget chimera!_

"You…friend, get doctoring." It said to Hawk. _I'm going to be medically treated? Am I being mistaken for Bloodhawk again? "Then…he evil…good one! Best all! Yes! Win you!" He flicked a switch in the wall and small wall panels opened up, depositing plate-like objects with…well, it certainly wasn't appetizing._

"He strong, need learning big! Evil good he then!" Then he walked for the door. What the heck was he telling them? What, that Hawk was their friend, he would get medical treatment and be their evil leader once more? If that was so, they really needed to check up on their recognition skills. 

"Waitasec…we may have found a good opportunity here…" Mini remarked thoughtfully.

Hawk nodded, then fell backwards again at the pain in his chest. 

"Okay, I'm gonna test something here…lessee…this'll do." Mini held a string from his jacket out, dangling it in front of his laser grid. Upon connection with the grid the end of the rope suddenly dropped off, being cut up into smaller pieces. "Nope, it's a cutter. No escape for now…wait…what's that yellow glow in the far wall?"

*****

The yellow-streaked chimera desperately ran from wall to wall, pressing at the tiles. _It has to be here somewhere…_Suddenly the tiny one came in through the door., speaking in its own tongue…

"So, PH-1. You're going to help us with a little…experiment. Lirash has been especially keen to do the honours." He cackled.

"You? Lirash? I thought you were both dead!"

"Ha…it looked like it, didn't it? When those openings were created in the Chimera Zero. The other tests came along perfectly…you were the most powerful of all, but with defects. You are an insult to the name chimera!"

"Why, because I can't teleport properly? Because of a few accidents I couldn't even help? Chimera is an insult to the word creature!" Phantom spread his arm blades, trying to look more powerful. Before the small one realized it, Phantom was behind him. Then came the extraordinary part. Phantom's eyes glowed bright green-yellow. He threw back his arms, screaming, not with pain or fear…the war cry of a warrior. The tiny chimera cringed. He knew what was coming…Phantom emitted a green shockwave across the ground. The small black chimera winced. Suddenly a column of earth shot up from the floor, destroying the laser grid and throwing the small guy smack into the wall, shrieking. Blood splattered across it. But Phantom's hopes and fears were both confirmed at the same time. He was in the presence of the Terras Ball.

*****

"What was that!?" KawaiiKitsune called to Black Eagle and Sama. 

"It was a boom!" Sama called back. Eagle rolled his eyes.

_I get stuck with Sama **again. What did I do to deserve this?**_

"Look on the bright side, KK. At least you're not in the same CELL as him!"

Sama looked up from his toilet drink. "Eh?"

_Lucky I flushed…_Eagle thought unhappily. "That was…Phantom's cell, right? That…'boom' as Sama called it…"

*****

"sssssh!" Phantom whispered to Mini before he had even entered the room. "If they know I'm out, that's it! Finito!" Hawk gasped with hope. They were as good as out of there, alright!

Phantom quickly made for the yellow glow in the wall and moved his fingers around the edge. The panel dropped out and there it was, Hawk's emerald…Phantom lifted it out and suddenly there was a sound like a backward laser. The grid was gone. "Thanks!" Mini said calmly. Phantom quickly gave the emerald to Hawk. 

"I'm up! Let's rock!" Bluehawk gripped the emerald and was instantly on his feet, heading for the door. "You guys comin'?"

"Not yet. The Terras Ball is nearby."

Hawk's head dropped, tilted.

"The earth elemental! It's here! I was able to use its power! Long story, but we gotta find it!"

"Whatever…but first things first. Find and free the others."

The door seemed to take forever to open as Eagle watched. But the familiar faces were more than welcome. The laser grid was almost instantly shut off and Sama ran straight up to Hawk. "They took my baggings!" He wailed. Hawk rolled his eyes. "He wasn't too much trouble this time?" He asked KK.

"Only because he didn't get the time!" She replied before going to hug Minimaniac.

"Okay. Two teams. Mini and KK, you guys can try to find a way to get outta here. Sama, Phantom, Eagle and myself will try to find the Terras ball…thing." 

KK was about to object, but then realized that escaping would probably be better than the search for the whatsis. 

"Move out!" Bluehawk commanded, gripping his emerald and realizing that the Uzana 32 was in his shoe the whole time. Quickly he kicked it out and took the time to notice just how white the walls were.

Bluehawk quickly ducked into an arched door as he heard chimera voices moving along the hallway. They seemed happy, and two chimeras walked right past the door. Quickly, Hawk slunk out and kept on moving. What was he looking for, anyway? Some kind of yellow-green thing like the orb in the mountain…Hawk held both his gun and his yellow emerald tightly. Suddenly there was a loud wailing. An alarm of some sort. "Inklinosi hirp! Inklinosi hirp!" a voice rang. Hawk knew what it meant, but they had taken this long to realize that their prisoners were loose?  Suddenly he felt dizzy…but he wasn't having a lapse of balance. That was caused by major vibrations. 

******

"No, Sama! What are you doing!" Eagle cried. He was impossible to control, he just didn't understand! Sama paced forward a step. The chimeras' eyes fixed upon him, full of fear and rage. Eagle watched as the flames behind them roared hungrily for something more to burn. The chimeras' guns had been knocked aside into the flames. Suddenly, Sama roared and charged at the trapped chimeras. "NO!" Sama tackled each chimera with one arm, grabbing them and leaping…he was in the flames. Sama had leapt into the flames. Eagle reached out a hand in grief…then suddenly two chimeras ran up behind him. A yellow flash. A swung hand. Two chimeras flying backwards onto the ground and cringing in terror. The dark side of Black Eagle unleashed. A yellow blur ensued throughout the chimera ship…it took off very quickly. If it didn't, it would have heard Sama's voice from inside the fire. 

"Heehee…bad hedgehogs go fire!"

*****

Minimaniac gently pushed into the unique tile in the wall, and surely enough, the wall moved outwards into the open. "Okay, time to go-AAAAAGH!" Mini quickly dived for the wall. The wind was so strong, sucking them out into the open…and as KK gripped a horizontal pole she realized why. They were immensely high…the ship was moving fast, over mountains, covered with trees. How could they get out safely?

*****

Phantom crept silently through the rooms, laughing in his mind. _The mazes are all exactly the same!_ He thought to himself. He crept further through the corridors and eventually found what he was looking for. A red door. It was sealed shut completely. If he was going to get through, he'd have to teleport. _Great. He thought to himself sarcastically. __Just when I need to teleport. This ALWAYS happens! Suddenly he was somewhere else…similar environment, but darker…there was a red door behind him. He was through! He started to look around a bit more. The roof bent upwards further into the middle…coloured beams of light which bent and crackled constantly like electricity shot between the object on the pedestal and pylons in the room. Phantom knew what he was beholding. The Terras orb. It was there. Right there. In front of him, ready to just be plucked and kept for later use. Suddenly a glint of light caught his eye. It had flashed less than a second. But suddenly he knew what was watching him. Quickly he blacked his ears just before that piercing shriek of an alarm sounded. __Concentrate…Concentrated red light shot down into the sphere, became green and shot right at where Phantom had just been. But he was in the presence of the Terras orb. His power source. He teleported again to avoid another blast. The red door faded…or seemed to, the first laser had blown a hole right through it.  Suddenly Phantom found himself on top of the device that was attacking him. With a swish of the arm, it was pierced to the circuitry by Phantom's arm-blades. Phantom was forced to teleport to the ground again as a laser reflected off the orb again, just missing him…but the intended effect had been achieved. The laser device fell to the ground with a smash. It almost seemed safe all of a sudden. Before anything else could happen, Phantom ran for the orb and reached out for it…he had it. He could use his full power now! But something was wrong as he held the magnificent ball in his hands. It felt…just like a heavy thing. Lifeless. He had expected this to be something amazing, yet it was so disappointing…_

*****

"Sama!" Hawk whisper-called down to his brain-dead pal. "Sama!"

Sama looked straight up. "Hawk? How'd you fit in the vent?" Was his reply. 

"There are chimeras coming. I'm not up here."

Sama turned when he heard footsteps and looked at the chimeras. "Hawk's not in the vent!" He said. The chimeras stood there, confused. They didn't understand him. Hawk wiped his forehead. They didn't know he was up there. Suddenly the middle one fired at Sama. The shot exploded onto him…but he just stood there. The chimeras gasped, became angry. Hawk suddenly realized that they knew something he didn't. There was a sudden yell from one of them…then quick footsteps. Hawk couldn't see perfectly, but he knew one of them was making a run for it. Sama was so powerful!? Suddenly Bluehawk noticed a ringing-pinging-whoosh noise…then suddenly a bright yellow streak burst right around Sama and into the remaining chimeras…then skidded to halt. "Sama! You're alive!" It cried. _Eagle!?_ Suddenly Bluehawk was half deafened by a piercing shriek…that repeated exactly the same way again. An alarm.

*****

Phantom stood in the doorway, staring straight at the door. The Terras orb was truly going to prove its worth in him this moment…suddenly the door slid open and five streakless chimeras stood in the doorway, their guns aimed into the room…but there was no-one in there…just the pedestal and everything no longer working in there…the orb was gone…suddenly one of them was thrown forward with a yelp. The others turned, to see Phantom there, arm-blades out, eyes blazing. The two next to him fired, but he was no longer there and both gripped their chests, collapsing slowly to the ground. The two behind them stood there in shock, staring at their three comrades who had just been slaughtered. The traitor was back…suddenly one of them shifted slightly, before uttering something in Chimeran language. The other's eyes widened, he moved his feet a little bit. The first was right. The ship was tilting forward…the mystery power source of the ship had been the Terras Ball?

*****

Bluehawk knew what that tilt meant. The ship was losing power. Sama simply stood there, blinking, Black Eagle stood panting. Bluehawk stood looking around frantically. Yep, the ship was tilting further. And further.

*****

Minimaniac suddenly wobbled slightly. Looked like their chance to escape was coming, although it was a dangerous chance…the ship was either landing or crashing. Perhaps they had run out of fuel? Or had that earlier alarm signaled a landing of some sort? Another alarm sounded, along with a voiceover. Mini looked to KK…nope, she was looking as worried as he felt. Suddenly he felt all of his weight pulling to the right and slammed into a door…

*****

A young squirrel girl looked happily up into the trees around her. It was the perfect day for a walk, alright. Perfect weather, not a cloud in the sky…the birds were chirping happily. Suddenly she felt a chill from her head down; shadow covered the environment around her…that was no cloud. A bright light flashed…whatever it was, it was heading straight into the hill…suddenly there was a huge crash as the giant craft impacted. What was that huge craft!? There was another loud bang as the back end hit the ground, followed by a strong gust of wind. The young girl just stood there, if she was about to be attacked she would never make it back to town anyway, so what was the point? Just for measure, she looked around for a strong stick and picked one up. Then she ran forward toward the destroyed aircraft, hoping that the people back in town had seen it hit.

*****

Phantom kicked forward, shunting off the steel sheet that had attacked him from above. No, it came back. He was kicking upwards…no wonder his head hurt. Slowly he flumped himself onto his stomach, the steel sheet sliding off his feet and hitting the steel floor with a clunk. Then he saw the blood on its end, and on the wall that now was a floor. Then he saw the pinkish blob…then half of a chimera head. Not a pretty picture. There was little lighting, basically only light which had seeped in from openings and reflected off of the metallic surfaces. This chimera ship was now officially a derelict. _Hope the others are okay…_

*****

Minimaniac awoke to an obviously female voice ringing through the corridors…He got up slightly. "KK?" He grunted quietly. "You okay?"

"I'm…I think so…"

But…that hadn't been KK's voice a few seconds ago…suddenly he heard it again. 

"Is there anyone alive down there?" It called. 

Minimaniac rubbed his head…that had been one heck of a ride…quickly he got up and ran across the sloped wall and the floor to where the purple kitsune was and grunted to lift her hand from a pile of appliances. "We're okay!" Mini called to the girl outside. "Don't come in though! It's full of hostiles!" 

KK simply grabbed her arm and shook it. It was working, but felt a little weird. Suddenly Mini looked upwards along the corridor. Sure enough, the girl who called down was making her way inside. "Hey, I said don't come in! It's dangerous down here!"

"Are you with anyone?" She asked.

"Yeah, but-" KK cut herself off as she realized that this girl was already on her way further in. "Who does she think she is?" She rolled her eyes as she spoke to Mini, who was climbing upwards along the virtually vertical floor.

*****

"Naw…no, don't doctor…it seriously hurts…no! Ow!"

"Alright. Done. Now we expect a full mission report in five hours."

It was hard working for the secret service. Ever since Bluehawk had completely merged with their chaos emerald they had treated him especially harshly. It wasn't his fault, it had called out to him…he just touched it and it attached to his finger and sucked itself right in…Bluehawk kicked the wall on his way out in frustration, getting himself even more frustrated from the pain in his foot. _Stupid training missions…_

"Hello? Anyone down here?" a faint voice came from down the stairs…it sounded so familiar…almost like an angel…was that an angel speaking to him? 

"Hello?"

Suddenly Bluehawk opened his eyes, realizing that he was now awake…not that there was much to see…or breathe. He kaffed out whatever was clogging the entrance to his lungs. Suddenly he realized he was hearing the sounds of things being thrown off of him. He was still gripping his emerald…interesting. Or had it clung to him? Then light came through the wreckage that covered him, then whatever was in the way was removed and he saw the floor of the craft…he was on the roof!? Then the face appeared, ready to remove more stuff…and suddenly Bluehawk knew where he had heard that voice before, even if it had changed since. It was _her. She seemed to recognize him, as well. Before she even realized her hand was on her mouth in surprise._

"You." Hawk said coolly. 

"…wh-What a surprise, Bluehawk! Eh heh…" Quickly she moved away. Bluehawk rolled his eyes. 

"What, surprised that I still exist in more than your memory? P'uh! Like I care anyhoo." Hawk quickly got up and lifted his sunglasses from behind his head. "Leave now before the chimeras get organized and start hunting us down." The orange squirrel obeyed and made her way back up the way she had come. Bluehawk heard a crunch from behind…either Eagle or Sama. One of them, at least, was alright. Then there was another crunch from somewhere else and both of their heads popped out of a huge pile of now useless hardware. "Ow." Sama said finally. Black Eagle shook dust off his head. "Well, that was…interesting…"

"Did you find anyone?" Minimaniac asked into the opening of the wreckage down the hill. KK stood behind hopefully. 

The squirrel girl nodded as her tail twitched violently. "Yeah, and he's okay. The blue fox." 

"Anyone else?"

"I found Bluehawk and then he told me to come back up here." She rolled her eyes as she jumped to the grassy earth. "Stupid boy's so stubborn when he's irritated."

Mini and KK exchanged glances. She knew Hawk? Suddenly they could hear a whooshing noise from inside and a Blue streak leapt out of the derelict craft along with two others, Eagle and Sama. Mini smiled broadly as he watched them hit the ground. "Any sign of Phantom?" Hawk asked Minimaniac, cutting right to the chase. Mini shook his head. Eagle threw a glance at the squirrel girl of whom no one knew the name but Hawk. Sama simply stood there wondering what was going on. Suddenly everyone looked in surprise to the center of the group where Phantom now stood. "No need to worry, Me's-a right here!" Hawk couldn't help but laugh.


	6. Long Forgotten

Chapter 6:      Long Forgotten 

Not for the first time, Hawk lay with his arms under his head. He was starting to get attached to the view of ceilings now, he saw them a lot when he had something to think about. Yes, he had a lot to think about. He was here in his old home…well, hometown. It had been a good place for that year…it still was but for the terrible memories that now plagued it. Well, the next day he would see just how much of it and how really he could see. It seemed like an eternity ago now, almost like it had never happened, or was ancient history. Not that he had had a great amount of history lessons, just the basics…geography he had never paid any attention in. This town…Koringhn…something about how some flame tribe had abandoned it many years back during some war with such-and-such. It was North of the what's-its-name desert…started with 'I'…but…that wasn't the problem. The geography of this area was never a major issue for Hawk…rather a certain person who existed in this town. He was doing it again. Falling for her, like nothing bad had ever happened. Like none of his expectations had ever been misplaced. Like he had never assumed the stupid and impossible. Like she had never killed off half of his spark. He had learned a lot from what had happened around here…he had learned more in that three days than in his entire time at the secret service training rooms. No, he hated her for what she did to him, yet at the sight of her removing the destroyed hardware burying him, his heart had leapt. Bluehawk sighed and turned over. _These connections never go away, do they?_ Quietly he sniffed out his first tear since almost a year ago and left his eyes closed.

The others were still asleep, but Minimaniac and Phantom headed downstairs for breakfast in the restaurant. It was a cosy place, with a good contrast of natural colours and black. The place was quiet, they were up fairly early, so they chose a six-seat table in case the others woke up and  sat down. Minimaniac grabbed a menu. "So explain the whole 'restaurant' thing…what are the customs?"

Minimaniac raised an eyebrow. "Heh…I keep forgetting you're not from this planet. Just…read the menu, choose what it is you want to eat from there, and the rest, follow my lead."

Phantom quietly wondered to himself if he should pretend to be Sama. But contrary to his thoughts, he nodded his head.  They sat there for about a minute before a waiter came to their table. 

"Would you like anything?" The squirrel asked. 

"Just looking for now, thanks." Minimaniac handed the menu to Phantom.

"What's a ku-rois ant?" Phantom asked suddenly.

"Quah-sohn." Mini corrected him. "It's a weird kind of bread thing." Phantom nodded in response. "You ready to order?" Mini asked. Phantom nodded again. Black Eagle pulled up a seat next to Phantom just as the waiter walked over. 

"Ready to order?" He asked. 

"Two croissants, please." Mini recited.

"Make that three." Eagle added. 

"Toppings?"

"Just butter." Black Eagle.

"Same for me, I guess." Phantom said, wanting to taste the croissant and nothing else.

Mini thought for a moment. "Hmm…same for me." The waiter wrote this down. 

"Three croissants with just butter. A drink?" All three of them shook their heads. The waiter walked off, swishing his tail. The three of them sat in silence, when Eagle decided to speak first.

"Yanno that weird squirrel girl? I kinda get the idea that Hawk knows her."

Phantom rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Oh, MY. How'd you get that idea? From the way they seem to hate each other?" 

Eagle now was the one to roll his eyes. "Yeah, I figured you'd realize that…but…ah, never mind. It's none of our business anyway."

"Speak o' the devil." Phantom muttered. Mini looked up. Yeah, that was her alright. She briskly walked around a few tables and pulled up a seat next to Minimaniac. 

"Hey, that seat's for Hawk." She showed no intention of leaving her position. "Did you hear me?" 

She strategically ignored him as KK walked in, followed by Sama, and they both sat down. 

"Hi guys!" KK chirped happily. Sama simply grunted as everyone said hi to them both. KK sat next to the squirrel girl and Sama next to KK and Eagle. "Where's your blue friend?" The squirrel girl asked finally. 

"Still asleep, I guess." Mini replied. "And you're sitting in his seat."

"Well, doesn't that show a lot of gratitude for the way I ventured into that ship to help your friends!" She retorted conceitedly. Mini bit back what he was going to say before it was too late. Suddenly Phantom realized a steaming croissant was being placed in front of him, then one in front of Eagle and one for Mini. 

"Steak?" Sama said curiously.

"Croissant." Phantom corrected him. 

Sama shook his head, "I steak?" He repeated.

Phantom started trying to cut up his croissant with an un-coordinated knife. "Still learning!" He said cheerfully. 

"Hold it with the fork." KawaiiKitsune suggested. Phantom tried this with a bit more skill than before. Eagle was already halfway through his. Sama, KK and the squirrel girl placed their orders, and the waiter walked away. Mini looked up to the door into the hotel to see Bluehawk walking in slowly. He was already wearing his sunglasses even though it looked like he'd only just woken up, and he looked pretty tired, too. He realized that all of the seats on his friends' table were taken and slowly walked over to another table by himself. He just sat there, looking straight at the table, leaning his head on his elbow. There was something other than the table bothering him, that was for sure. Phantom and KK seemed to have noticed as well. But the thing that most surprised them all was that Sama was the one to go over to Hawk. The blue fox looked up. "Hawk not happy." Sama said. "Hawk need friend!" Hawk just nodded silently. 

"Hawk not happy at all." He replied finally. Sama sat next to Hawk in an attempt to cheer him up. Well, it helped that he was making an effort. Mini and Phantom exchanged glances, but it was the hedgehog who lifted his plate and walked over. "You don't need to say that something's majorly wrong for people to notice." Mini suggested. Hawk sighed. 

"It's something I'd rather not bring up."

"Hawk need friends!" Sama said sympathetically. Hawk suddenly realized how unlike Sama it was to be sympathetic, he was so slow that he never understood anything. 

"Well, if you ever need to talk, you have a lot of friends around, eh?"

 Hawk nodded. "Thanks."

Hawk had to be alone for this, it was the only way it would really work. He walked slowly towards the river…yeah, that was the place…a river in the forest…but would he find exactly the right place? Suddenly he realized he could vaguely hear trickling water…down a steep hill off the right side of the path. Not worth jumping…suddenly everything looked different. The sky was suddenly much cloudier…_If I don't get there fast enough, I'll miss her!_ Suddenly he was leaping over the side of the hill…and he was back where he was a few minutes ago. He had jumped last time. He wasn't going to jump now. Should he even be doing this? No, he had to. It was a matter of facing his worst moment. Facing his fear again, in the same place, only in a different way. Without another thought, Hawk jumped off the side of the hill and landed with a thud on the muddy grass. The river was ahead, downhill…yeah, that tree looked dang familiar…the sky was suddenly cloudy again, the images blurred…he had looked up at that tree on his way down almost a year ago…it was more green then. The earth was muddier then. The sky was blue again. Hawk could hear the trickling water even more strongly than before. It was a beautiful place, tarnished by memory. Then the river was in sight. The sky was cloudy again…yep, there she was…dangling her bare feet in the water. The sky went blue again and she disappeared. Bluehawk choked. This was the place. The rock right there was where she was sitting about a year ago. He lifted the sunglasses off his eyes and examined them. He had had these for a long time. Since before he left the secret service in fact. Before he could break down Bluehawk took off back up the hill while using his chaos emerald…if he had stopped to look back he would have seen the black red-eyed figure drop down upon his ex-location. It knew he wouldn't come back, it knew where he was headed. Koringhn. It quickly waded through the river to report back to 'HQ'.

Hawk slowed down upon nearing the hotel, the others assumedly inside. He had an energetic spring in his step, yet he sagged painfully. The others weren't around, though…the rooms were empty. Hawk jogged down to the front counter. "Where'd my friends go?"

"Who were your friends?" 

"Green hedgehog with sunglasses, yellow echidna, black hedgehog with blades on the arms…"

"Ah, that group…they're not in their rooms, in the restaurant?"

"Neither."

The person at the counter gave a hum of concern. "Oh well, I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do for you."

Bluehawk stormed up to his own room like a grumpy teenager.

Bluehawk opened the door and drew back in shock. The room had been completely turned upside-down. The windows were cracked, the curtains on the floor and the TV facedown. Hawk rushed to the bedroom. Yep, there was a note…obviously rushed…reason to haste, obviously…Hawk pulled up his sunglasses and tried to decipher the message…No, the writing was too messy…then he noticed in the top right-hand corner…there was a date written in the corner, and unlike the rest, this was easy to understand. It was today…at 12:32…it was 12:35 now! There was still time…

Hawk skidded out onto the street, then realized that the intruders didn't leave through the front door. Within three seconds he was under his hotel room's window, next to a _please keep off the grass_ sign…it had been trodden on already. Lucky it hadn't been mown the past couple of weeks, it seemed…fate had a hand in this once again…the trail led into the forest…further and further. Finally it led to a clearing, where there seemed to be a whole mess of footprints all sauntering about a small area, and mud had been blown aside from their central point. They had been whisked away into a helicopter or something. Hawk stamped his foot in frustration. He had come all this way just to be beaten by a stupid aircraft. They must have used some kind of tranquilizer, otherwise Sama, Eagle and Phantom would all have escaped… "DAMMIT!" Hawk suddenly cried, then withdrew at the sound of his echo in silence. Something wasn't right. No birds chirping, nothing. Just himself and the trees…this was very uncomfortable. What was going on? Hawk shook his head. There never was a huge amount of tiny fauna around here anyway…but this still felt unusually quiet…Hawk ran back in the direction from whence he came, dodging trees and fallen logs with ease. He listened as he sped to the rustling sounds of the branches he pushed out of the way…wait…there was an extra rustle just behind…Hawk sped up and kept his eyes ahead. There was something following him…and it was moving fast. Hawk grabbed the first thick branch he spotted and heaved, feeling that all-too common lurch of moving upwards. Whatever it was skidded distractedly and ran straight into a nearby tree with a loud thud. Yeah, another red-eye all right. It fell over backwards and stopped moving. Hawk heard another rustling from behind. He had to get out of there, that was for sure…he jumped down from his branch and used the Hawk Dash for quick acceleration through the slurpy mud. 

Koringhn seemed fairly normal, the people in general knew nothing about what was going on that would disastrously effect them within minutes. Only the people in the hotel had a clue. One of the rooms had been ransacked and its sole occupant had sure taken off in a hurry, there were also a few missing persons: A green hedgehog with purple stripes on his spines, a black hedgehog with yellow stripes up his forehead and down his spines, his top spine hooked upward and he had blades on his arms, a navy-shelled armadillo, a yellow echidna and a purple kitsune. The blue fox who had been with that group had run off at breakneck speed, but to most it was an ordinary day. That was, until a completely unnoticed jet-black figure with red lenses on its eyes, who was standing on top of the hotel, put its mouth to a communicator, held down the talk button, and said quietly: "Now."

The blue fox was nearly back at the town, just 50 metres or so of forest, then a short strip of grass to pass through…suddenly there was a booming noise, like thunder. Hawk slowed as he felt a sharp chill up his spine. Then he saw the smoke, and could hear the noises of commotion. Then there was another rumble. Hawk sped up again. Something was definitely wrong today. Then there was a flash along with the next rumble as a building in full view spontaneously erupted into flames. The town was being bombed…but there were no aircraft in the sky. Demolished then. Suddenly there was a loud shriek from the street as Hawk entered…he stood there, in shock, the full capacity of what was going on not quite getting through, but full-on nonetheless. His old home was being overrun by…not ninjas…shadows. Shadows of men. Hawk only had about five bullets left now…he kicked upwards, and his gun whipped out of his shoe, elegantly catching it in mid-air. A shadow figure ran across his field of vision…**Bang!** Its head swung slightly, then it dropped backwards to the ground. Two more came out from opposing buildings, glanced at the body and turned their heads to Hawk. Everything seemed to be going so slowly…flames came out from the building the one on the left had just left. **Bang! …Bang!** The first one's head tilted sideways and the neck appeared to tear from the side as if it were woven. The second head was gone, a fountain of red water spurting from the top in pulses. Another shot was fired, a more distant shadow twitched as it was about to whack down a fox…then fell onto its shoulder. And finally Hawk turned around, startled, at a shadow so close it could have nudged him with its shoulder. Blood splattered his sunglasses. He didn't bother to wipe it off…all he could do was run. Run from the carnage and terror behind that he felt as if he couldn't stop…he could only prolong it, if that. Run from memories so cold, they iced his heart at their mere thought. And last but not least, run from the fear that they were after _him. Their ulterior motive was to catch Bluehawk, he didn't know why…but that was a strong feeling in his stomach that he couldn't outrun however fast he could go. _

Suddenly Hawk realized that the tears in his eyes had clouded his judgement of time. He lifted his sunglasses. It was getting dark already…all he had now was his gun, two bullets and his chaos emerald…which in some ways wasn't a good thing. Oh, and the clothes he had on at the time. How long had he been running for? Where was he now, anyway? Wait, he had been heading…close to South, but he had been running all day. He glanced to the chaos emerald…it wouldn't wear out with another couple of hours running, probably, considering how surprisingly little it had dimmed. But it was extremely dim compared to what Hawk had ever seen it become. Weird that it hadn't cut out on him about half an hour into the run, yet he had been running for hours and it was still going. Hawk took the time to check his surroundings. It was somewhat of a plain, grass everywhere (slightly dry) and the odd tree littered at roughly 100 metre intervals. He kicked the ground. The earth was tough…tougher than normal. He must have traveled quite a distance if the ground wasn't muddy. But he had to keep going. He couldn't sleep here, no telling what would be around. Plus the shadow figures may be after him…_I just hope I've lost them somewhere…he thought to himself. But considering the speed he had been traveling at, they would have a trail to pick up. He couldn't wait until morning. It was time to keep moving…if only he had his chao with him, at least then he'd have someone slash something to talk to. __What am I saying? He thought to himself. _Chao aren't that intelligent! At least, not until they get really old. _Suddenly he forced himself to skid to a stop…that was close, he almost fell over in this…dip in the ground. Definitely unnatural. For one thing, the grass was much shorter. Possibly because it got less sunlight, but it didn't seem to be the case. Hawk stooped, brushing it aside with his hand. The earth was mostly black, save a few spots where the earth seemed to have eroded upwards. It was all the same, boringly enough. There was a dim flash from the emerald as Hawk took off again…suddenly he had to stop again. There was another big dip, just like the other one, except for the fact that this one had a large rock protruding from the side. __Too weird… He started walking through it…but then when he reached the upward slope the ground seemed shaky. He doubled back slightly. It seemed almost hollow. Quickly he checked underneath the (somewhat dry) grass…strange in a dip, the water should gather there. Sure enough, the earth wasn't burnt there, as if a hole had been dug which caved in. Hawk kicked it. There was air behind it, because it dipped in further. He kicked it again. This time the earth just fell through, revealing an albeit small tunnel. Throwing caution to the wind, Bluehawk ducked down and crawled inwards…it pressed in on him and pulled on his fur, but he was fine with that, he had to figure out what was up with this, so he crawled onwards, a strong chill in the parts of him that were touching the earth. It was damp and extremely cold. But he went on, not only would this make an excellent hiding place from the shadows, but it may even lead somewhere useful…like to food. Suddenly the ground beneath him crumbled and he landed flat on his back in a dirt corridor. Without even thinking about it he was standing up within a second, another second and his gun was out, alternating between pointing in each direction. No, behind him was a dead-end. So there was only one way to go. No other way out._


	7. Prophecy

Chapter 7:    Prophecy 

The tunnel was finally coming to an end. Well, sort of. Hawk would be deep underground by now…again. He slowed down slightly as he felt he cool breeze of a spacey hollow in the earth. This one showed many more signs of construction…the walls and roof were rounded into one…made of some kind of metallic substance, they were blue. Wait, maybe they were stone…who could say for sure? They looked like a mix of the two. There was a humming sound from the center of the room, down on the floor. Hawk looked at the wall below him and ducked down to inspect it. Yep, there were grooves in the wall for climbing. Avoiding a somewhat precarious drop the sort of which has always been a hassle, he dropped down to the ground from halfway and realized that the strange humming was from underneath. There was a passage at the other side of the room. What was this place, anyway? Hawk realized he had travelled a long way South…no idea where any of his friends could be. They would have survived, no doubt. If any of them had been taken by surprise, the others wouldn't be so easy. Even Kay-Kay probably had some strong fighting techniques, not that Hawk had seen them yet, but who cared? She wouldn't have come after him with Mini if she didn't. The passage turned away to the left, still lots of blue glowing panels at the bottom of the walls and near the roof. The floor was metallic and rang as Hawk ran. Sort of like some kind of base. Suddenly he came out into a large room…just a large domed room. Same colour scheme as the rest, though. Suddenly there was the whoosh of someone dropping to the ground from above…then a light tap on metal. Hawk stepped back, a dark, cloaked figure was standing there…it was breathing, its chest moved in and out…its face was hidden in shadow, it wore a dark blue cloak…its eyes glowed yellow. Nothing compared to what Hawk had faced in the past sometimes. "How did you find us?" It growled. Hawk didn't answer, there was a buzzing noise as the glowing blue beam came out of Hawk's clenched fist again. The Lazuli Blade. He remained controlled. "HAGH!" It yelled. Suddenly there was a loud metal clunk as steel bars blocked the way back and the way forward. Hawk swiftly turned around and hit the bars with his blade…the blade disappeared as Hawk reeled from the sudden vibrations in his hand. "You cannot run. Did you think that this I would not anticipate?" Hawk turned back around. Not going down without a fight. No way. He pushed his sunglasses back onto his eyes as they slipped forward. The cloaked figure drew a shiny yellow blade out of nowhere. No, it was solid. Surely. Hawk made the first move. Anticipating his own attack of rainbow energy bolts, Bluehawk outstretched his hand suddenly. "YARGH!" **Pychark! Pychark!**This one wasn't even powered by the emerald! Hawk's eyes widened. The cloaked figure had retreated backwards. The emerald was still fairly dim. Hawk glanced at it. No, it wasn't dimmed by that lightning. Suddenly his hand shot up to block the yellow sword coming down on him. "Have to be faster than that." Hawk remarked cockily. Cloak let out a growl, then jumped backwards again, put his sword away and reached into his coat. Suddenly there was a thwipping noise and a clang. He had out a long, gold chain, which coiled and writhed as though it were alive. Hawk stepped back from it as a wave of leaping links neared him. He glared at his attacker. Suddenly, with barely a thought, he was slamming himself straight into the wall, sandwiching the cloaked one. Suddenly the cloak simply dropped to the ground, its occupant seeming to have vanished. Hawk stepped back. What the heck had just happened? Whatever was in that cloak had deliberately let him win. Either to put him off guard or to let him through for some other reason…That was the next thing Hawk noticed. The barred doors were now open. Figuring out which door was the one he came from, he jogged forward…the passage turned left again. A dirt room, then. A pedestal in the center that looked sickeningly familiar. It was just like the pedestal in the ice chamber…only there was nothing on it. The passage was a dead end…but then Hawk realised there was a piece of paper attached to the other side. He walked around slowly, reached out to pluck it and ripped it from its nail. 

_With power taken, evil is reborn._

_Power handed to the people of wrong._

_The elemental's champion_

_Is the opposite of their titan._

The writing seemed to be a translation of what was inscribed on the pedestal in strange lettering. Time to stuff this into his pocket for later. But…how to get out? Suddenly there was the sound of an explosion from the wall ahead and the choice was made for him as the dirt wall collapsed…stand ground. A giant black thing was bursting out from the wall…hungry, vengeful…Its red eyes gleamed and looked straight at Hawk.

"Pee…haitch…won…" It snarled.

Hawk stepped back, drawing the Lazuli Blade. Pee haitch won…no, PH-1. What? What was PH-1?

"What's…PH-1?" Hawk said slowly, half-stammering, stepping back and bumping a wall. For a second he thought he was trapped, then he realized he had turned slightly. The Lazuli Blade was pointed directly at the creature's gaping maw. It lumbered forward slightly with a thoom, then lashed out its tongue twice. Suddenly it lunged forward, taking a bite out of the wall behind where Hawk had just been. If it hadn't been for the emerald…the creature seemed to think it had got him for a second, then it realized that for one thing it could hear the humming of the Lazuli Blade, and secondly that there was nothing live in its mouth. Its head turned angrily. Its eyes flashed, and for the first time Hawk noticed it had huge bat wings which were now spreading. It forced its face forward, splitting Hawk's ears with a huge roar…then the rumbles started and it lost its footing. Earth crumbled from the roof. Hawk was about to run away when he realized that it was impossible to do so. The emerald flashed in his hand, then crackled, and the crackling faded. So did the Lazuli Blade. Not so good at all. Abandoning all worries of pain, Hawk threw himself to the side, narrowly averting a tongue lash. The long slimy pink thing stayed out and rigid…Then started swinging from side to side as the huge creature tossed its head. Hawk was well out of range, and the creature soon realized this as its glistening red eyes fixed on him. It didn't stop swinging for a few seconds, then it sucked its tongue in with a sickly sliding noise and grunted twice. Hawk stepped back, then suddenly knew what to do and extended his arm. The creature looked surprised, as if it had expected him to flee at any moment. Perhaps that's what all of his other prey had done. But hawk stood his ground, hand outstretched. Suddenly the huge hulking creature bounded away through the passageway through which Hawk had come…then Hawk saw the strips on its back. A chimera!? But then he realized he should be turning to where the beast came from, the hole in the wall.

It was dimly lit along this new corridor, and it showed no signs of resurfacing. It was level, which was a relief, because Hawk wanted to reach the surface before facing further horrors…and the deeper he got…but it was amazing how this tunnel could have been generated without anyone knowing…it would have been charted or something. But then the air eventually became fresher…it was subtle at first, but then Hawk realized there was less of a dirt smell and he was getting cold. Hawk sped up a little, the emerald still not being any use to him in its need to charge, so he didn't go too fast in fear of tiring himself out any more than the day's events already had. He had been running for most of the day…trying to think…but now that he felt safe again the only thoughts he had were those of the past…he could still remember that awful day as though it were yesterday, even though it had been a year since…the images he could recall with but a thought, that had subconsciously plagued him this whole time…after spending all of that time in a sort of solitude training at the secret service he had completely lost any social skills he had, which was probably why he had been so naïve…so trusting of what he knew, so assuming…so stupid. He had been highly misunderstood too though, in the process. His thoughts at that stage far exceeded what he could have expressed…then the night air hit him, the cold wind, and the opening into darkness that was so welcome now…Then he bothered to look around, the tunnel was dimply lit and shot some light out here, so Bluehawk moves out of it, into the dark where he couldn't be spotted so easily. The grass around him bent in the wind, being rather wet and green, but also long…but the only thing he could really do now was sleep while he let the emerald recharge, so he sat down and tried to get comfortable, despite having nothing but what he held and wore. 

*****

Phantom looked around, dazed. He must have collapsed once he knew he had won…that was the last thing he could remember, at least. Eagle never would have succumbed…there was immense power in him of a strange sort…the sort that Phantom had felt before in a powerful foe…but only once….it was almost as though they had something in common. It had survived the fall, of course…it was probably even now looking for him. Sama groaned behind him, sitting up in the grass. "Where Hawk?"

"Hawk wasn't with us when we were attacked, Sama. He could be anywhere."

"We go find him now!"

"No, we go find the _others_ now, then we think about Hawk. At least with the others we have a chance…they should be around somewhere." 

Sama grunted. "I smell something."

Phantom glanced over and almost fell over laughing. KawaiiKitsune was trying to sneak past Sama without being noticed, but now that Phantom had spotted her she stamped her foot, which made Sama look up. "Yay! You here now." Sama cried happily. KK rubbed the side of her head.

"Where's Mini and the armadillo guy?"

"We're still working on that."

Sama looked around and slumped back onto the dewy grass.

"But in any case. As soon as they're found, we head South, to the Incire Globe!" Phantom announced.

Sama and KK gave him puzzled looks. 

"To the place where the orb of flames is. The Akise Orb was stolen in front of my very eyes, and that's what caused the eruptions…" KK's eyes widened. "The Pesnah Sphere was stolen before any of you were born, and the Terras Ball…my race used to have it. But they don't anymore." Of course not. He was it for now. "We have to get to the Incire Globe before sinister forces find it. If all four of the elements fell into the same hands, which they eventually will if we don't get them all, then SoaH will be the first place to be wiped off the map."

A thudding noise from the other side of the small hill behind them could be heard. Minimaniac was running toward them. "What's this about SoaH?"

"We're going South. Where's Eagle?"

"The shadows got him."

"Impossible." Phantom retorted. "You haven't sensed the power in that guy."

"I've seen it, and I saw him being dragged off unconcious."

That seemed to settle the matter. 

*****

Bluehawk didn't know which direction he was heading, but he ran at what would be his fastest pace without the emerald, using the emerald to keep from puffing himself out. Hopefully with this mode of travel he could find food and shelter…he seemed to be passing familiar territory, though…then he passed the sign as he turned downhill, and slowed to a stop before backing up a bit. "SoaH City-3 Days' travel.". Shoot, he was heading for home. But at least it could help him get his bearings…he had found the ex-resting place of the Terras Ball, then when he reached SoaH City he could stock up on supplies, then reaching the ball of flames would take mere hours. And reaching SoaH city would take less than a single day from here considering he was running. 

It was late in the afternoon now. Hawk had made good time, and now he could see the city outskirts. Excellent, he was nearly right at home! First thing he would do is check up on the apartment, then maybe visit Nambuk or Sugababe. He grinned happily, as that feeling of homesickness became stronger than it had ever been-he didn't realize how much he had missed home! 

The apartment was like it hadn't been lived in for a while, but obviously knowing he was gone Nambuk had cleared out (and possibly used, but he didn't mind) all of the perishable foods and made sure it didn't become web-infested. Hawk grabbed a few dry biscuits and changed his clothes (shaking out the red trousers to make sure they didn't have any spiders in them) before heading outside again.

*****

"One more day and we'll be there, I think." Minimaniac suggested.

"That is if no-ones' limbs are sore from trying to keep up." KK said unhappily.

"It's okay, KK. I can carry you if you want!" Mini offered.

Phantom and Sama were having their own conversation. "Did you see Hawk at all since he went out yesterday morning?" Phantom asked.

Sama shook his head.

"Sure? I know you let things slip sometimes, Sama."

Sama nodded.

Phantom wouldn't let his concerned look go, though. It was important that they found both him and Eagle, but there was something extra sinister about those shadows…the way they had taken Eagle and left, the way they had been captured by them before and taken to chimeras? The way they had first attacked, and attacked Bluehawk and only Bluehawk? What was up with all of that? Phantom knew that they would attempt to take the Globe of Incire, the flame orb. So what he had to do is claim it himself…maybe give it to…wait…Sama's stupidity…his flame abilities…could be connected…was he not discovered in that same desert by Bluehawk only a year before? The same desert they were now entering…?

*****

How good it was to have slept in his own bed for once. The emerald was now recharged as well, so Bluehawk made himself breakfast, packed a few clothes and basic supplies and was out the door, already running North-West with a map in hand. He would soon be in the same desert where he had started to make true friends…running along the hypotenuse he had been traveling along earlier. 

Damn it felt cool, having the lush landscape rushing underneath him and the wind in his face as if he were flying. He didn't usually enjoy going fast because it was usually used in short bursts or desperate situations…

*****

They had been out in the heat for a while, interesting how soft sand made the jouney so much hotter and harder, even for Minimaniac…although Sama wasn't bothered by the heat. The red sand went down with their weight and as such they avoided stepping in each others' footprints, making Phantom's the easiest job and KK's the hardest. But a town could be seen on the horizon. "Water…" KawaiiKitsune panted. She looked up to Minimaniac who looked almost the same, sweat coming close to dripping off of his chin. But he wasn't complaining in the least…although his thoughts were filled with constant grunts of boiling agony. "I'm staying in front to give you a little shade, KK." It wasn't working very well, he realized as he said it, but it had obviously expedited KK's suffering a little. 

"We're nearly there, you two! The orb should be near that town somewhere, and if our bearings are wrong at least they'll give us replenishment!" _And soon this area will be a different kind of wasteland…_Phantom thought to himself. _Although it might even be worse for some…_ the company of four trudged onward, each having their own thoughts associated with this new town. Customs, food, water or lack thereof…possible hostility…where's Hawk and Eagle? Then Minimaniac looked up beyond the town as it was halfway between them and the horizon. "DUST STORM! MOVE IT!" He cried out. The others looked. Sure enough, there was a lot of wind over there and a sandstorm was in fact brewing into their direction. If they could get to shelter in time, they would be fine. But if not…"Grab my arms!" Phantom commanded the others. Sama grabbed both, Minimaniac and KawaiiKitsune hesitated, then decided that running to the town in time, without drying out, was impossible. Then they didn't know where the heck they were…houses all around, all painted white and made of a sort of mud-brick….but Sama stared around as if nothing could make him happier…than to be home at last. 

******

He was nearly there…Hawk was nearly at the nearest town to the next sphere. The last one. The one which, perhaps finally, they would claim for themselves and use to prevent any further madness. Then suddenly he realized the gate was closing in front of him. "No entry without written invitation." Two guards in bulletproof vests suddenly turned in towards him from nowhere. Their yellow dreadlocks swished a little, almost perfectly synchronized. Almost like they were mechanical. Then his eyes widened. Yellow dreadlocks. Just like Sama. Just like Sama. Yellow echidnas, just like Sama. They took off their helmets, again synchronized…both of them had reddish eyes. Just like Sama. "Are you okay, kid?"

"I-I'm…fine…"

"Sorry, but you can't come in unless an official has invited you. We need **absolute** security…"

"You guard the globe of flame." Hawk said indignantly.

The guards gave a start. "Yes, you know. All the more reason to not let you in."

"All the more reason to _let_ me in. I want to help guard it…and I don't care if there's a gun at my head the whole time either. And you know it'll go sooner or later, no matter how tough security is."

The guards glanced at one another. The kid was right, but…

"Sorry. We can't."

"Alright then, know this…extreme forces are out to get it. Thousands of hedgehog like creatures each having special powers which you often will not be able to fight. Black shadows of humans…glowing red eyes. Their very presence smells of fear." The guards seemed almost unfased. "They will not stop. Try to defend yourselves without me and this entire desert is history…I've seen what the other removals have done." Bluehawk gave them cold, close up stares as he said this, even through the sunglasses they could see he was deadly serious. 

"We'll see what we can do…there's a town not far away from here, in THAT direction…" He pointed over the town. "You'll see it as soon as you're out of view of this one."

Bluehawk shrugged. Nothing wrong with checking it out. He crunched his hand over the emerald and was away like a bolt of lightning and a dust storm.

*****

Some dust storm that had been, it had pretty much just blown over when it neared the town. Phantom looked around, still no-one emerged from their houses. Minimaniac and KawaiiKitsune looked like he felt…and Sama was jumping about happily. "I know here! This place got small since time Sama came!" He started running off. He had to explore…see the town and what had changed! Phantom didn't bother to stop him…he seemed crazily happy, as if he had just been granted a room overflowing with sherbet bombs. Minimaniac glanced to Phantom. "Sure he should be running off?"

"No."

"Anything that means I don't have to look after him myself." Groaned KK. 

Minimaniac nodded sympathetically. Suddenly a yellow head popped out of a door near where Sama was running…a yellow echidna head! Just like Sama! 

"You're from around here…but I've never seen you before…" The girl said.

"SAMA BACK! SAMA BACK!" 

The yellow echidna girl's eyes widened. Like, REALLY widened. "Sama Funistuf was killed eleven years ago. You can't be him."

Sama just grinned, Phantom could tell even though he was facing the other way about twenty metres away. 

"Sama not dead never!"

The echidna girl stood there for a second. "Your…home was…just over there…" She stammered. Sama's jaw dropped. He was standing in a corner of the dusty street, so the others couldn't see where he was looking.

"It burn."

*****

Dear blue fox 

I figured you'd be at this hotel, so it wasn't hard to track you down. If the situation is a serious as you claim, and you can normally go as fast as you did, then the town of Corcieda would be glad to have you as a little extra defense. You and the security cameras and alarms will guard the Incire chamber itself. Yes, I'm being extra trusting, but I know of your race and I trust you: You are a descendant of the Pesnah guardians, as plainly as I am a yellow echidna. Our races were always allies and always meant to be allies. I know that your meaning is well and even if not I could not go without at least giving you a fair trial. This is your written consent to enter our town.

It was signed in orange ink at the bottom. Bluehawk leaned back on his hired bed and left his emerald on the desk to charge itself. But what did he mean, Pesnah guardian? He was no Pesnah guardian! Not even a descendant of-…then again, he knew nothing about his parents. For all he knew…the pieces were suddenly fitting together in his mind. He hadn't realized that his father would have escaped from the catastrophe at the Pesnah city straight to Graim's…he had noticed something about that, but not fitted it all together until now. His father had been one of the guardians of the Pesnah Sphere. Now he would follow in his father's footsteps and guard a different orb…in the morning…

*****

"They're coming." Phantom said eerily. "The chimeras are coming. That sound…"

Minimaniac and KawaiiKitsune stared in disbelief. 

"I'd know that sound anywhere! They've changed it a bit…must be a new model of the-"

Suddenly there was a huge high-pitched banging whine. Phantom was on a rooftop now, staring up at the air. There was a faint buzzing-hissing sound which was throwing itself about in all directions…there were multiple of whatever it was…sand from the roads blew away from certain points and the sound got lower-pitched. Then the sand stopped blowing about. KawaiiKitsune reached over the back of her shirt and lifted out a small bow, throwing a slingshot to Mini. Phantom stood atop his rooftop, simply staring at the spaces. Then the firefight began. 

*****

Bluehawk heard the blasts a long way coming…but what made him even more worried was the chimera ship he saw coming in the town's direction from the other side. This was a full-on attack, like he had predicted. Just as he had imagined…although these new sounds from the town weren't normal guns. He was nearing the town walls. Then he heard a faint flying whirring buzzing sound heading toward him…then he was thrown backwards as steel hit him straight in the face. Then the whirring was behind him. Scarmble up, scramble up, scrambleupscrambleupscrblupscramp and over his head it went again as he suddenly ducked. He kicked up and out of his shoe leaped his favourite gun…restocked from the town he had just come from. The whirring sound was again moving around him…**Bangpeeying!** The bullet richocheted, but there was now crackles around the whirring noise as it took shape. The cloaking device was gone, revealing a small steel dome with four limbs, the front ones being like that of a mantis, only shorter and fatter, and the ones at the back being those of a spider. A small visor resided in the dome…so was this manual control or what? It front legs rose and pointed at Bluehawk square between the eyes…for a split second, before the dust storm was leaping into the town straight over the wall…landing straight on top of another uncloaked drone, Bluehawk grabbed it as he went over the front and flipped over, letting go when it was heading for the ground, then landed dead on top of it. The yellow echidna girl in front of him eyed him her thanks. Bluehawk looked up as she ran away, seeing the battle before him. An explosion rumbled the white mudbrick houses and sent dust flying. Phantom was madly teleporting from one place to another…Bluehawk gripped his emerald. "Hawk! It's you! Get over there and-" Phantom teleported again and wrestled another drone to the floor as one across the street fired rapid bullets at a fleeing yellow echidna who was occasionly firing back. Phantom appeared again next to Hawk. "Find the orb! Hurry!" Bluehawk didn't wait around. Another drone was already on his back…the shadow of the chimera ship was drawing inward…Bluehawk dropped through the rubble of the burned down house into a small dark hole. Another underground escapade…wait…BURNED house? Mudbrick? No time to think about that…must get to orb.

*****

Phantom teleported again and watched the Spider Drone fire upon his previous location as if he were still there. At the command of his thought a pillar of earth shot up out of the ground and threw the hapless thing spinning over the wall and it exploded with a thoom. 

*****

Sama was darting about frantically and fearfully…perhaps he had gained some wit with the presence of the Incire Globe nearby…the bullets of the Spider Drones whizzed about him, narrowly missing his feet and head and he didn't even know how many drones were on him. Then his eyes changed as he saw the innocents being attacked in front of him. He glared up at the blurred light which marked a drone's location. His eyes grew hot along with the rest of him. Then onlookers and chimeras up in the ship, which was now casting a shadow upon him, watched with amazement as he burst into flames. There was no messing with him now…

*****

Minimaniac watched from his and KK's hiding place with absolute awe as Sama burst into flames, and then his fiery form darted about through the air, sending appearing drones flying into their own explosions. KawaiiKitsune suddenly let go with a twang and a flying, spearheaded wooden object upon a blurred shape that Sama hadn't yet seen.

"Not good." Mini's eyes widened. "You just showed them where we are." Then he saw her bright eyes.

"Good." She said with determination.


	8. Battle of the Enigmas

Chapter 8:      Battle of the Enigmas 

The first chimeras were dropping. Most of them were black, but the ones descending on the town all had some kind of air ability. Some had wings of strange colours. Others simply floated down, and one of them dropped without considering impact…he was not hurt when he landed on top of a fleeing echidna and shot its laser into his neck, soaking in the sight of the small pool of blood before standing up and firing at the fleeing yellow shapes. Some chimeras were gliding down at the unfortunate echidna people. The brave retaliated by throwing rocks that were steaming in their hands…their abilities with flame were present, but weak. "They are nothing to us. You may pursue them at your own risk." Lirash spoke into the small receiver in his native language. 

"Copy that. The orb is top priority."

Lirash smiled. "New energy readings popping up here and there. They match the Terras Ball. PH-1 and his allies are here. Terminate on sight."

The pilot sitting near Lirash twitched. 

"What is it?" Lirash growled.

"Drop the bombs, General?"

"No! We drop them, we lose access to the cave!"

"Wait…sir, new energy readings coming from the cave itself! It's electromagnetic!"

Lirash's face contorted into a scowl. "It's the Pesnah fox! Keep him alive! I want to make him suffer!" He held a yellow button on his transmitter. "And that goes for you five! You find the blue fox, you keep him alive and in good condition!"

"Yes sir."

******

Minimaniac desperately threw himself at the ground to get under another flurry of bullets. Would this assault never end? The drone pursuing him promptly flew over his head, not having realized he wasn't in the path of the bullets anymore. It was visible, probably because someone had knocked out its cloaking device with a rock. Then he realized it hadn't been after him…a few chimeras were dropping to the ground over there…what the heck was going on? 

******

"Sir, PH-1's energy signiature no longer shows up on the scanners!"

"WHAT!?" Lirash stormed over to where the pilot was. 

"PH-1's energy signiature is suddenly untraceable!"

"He's teleported!" He again pressed a different button on his transmitter. "Sweep the ship! The traitor may be aboard!"

Phantom grinned, satisfied that the programming center of those drones had been all in one place, right where he had anticipated. They were visible now, as well as programmed to track chimera energy signals. Some of them were on manual control, but that was no-_Oh no. Gliders._ He looked out the window below him. Now some of the most skilled chimeras were coming out on their glider devices. They were strange devices, like a kind of surfboard only they stood on them horizontally instead of long-ways, and they had hovering devices and a heavy arsenal of missiles…similar to what one of those moles had, actually…Phantom cringed as he heard that ever-so familiar alarm, like when HT-4 was discovered to be constantly escaping his cell. He tensed every muscle he knew how to and was gone in a flash. 

*****

KawaiiKitsune could still quite easily see Sama darting through the air furiously, in bright red flames and divebombing anything hostile. She looked up into the shadow of the chimera ship. That was just like what they had been dragged into before…but now the attack was from the outside. Strange shapes were dropping from the hull…steel shapes, and going all in the same direction, but heading downward. This was a chaotic scene indeed…it was amazing that no-one she knew had been killed already. She pulled out her bow again and placed the back of a wooden arrow on the string, pulling it back and aiming for the strange steel shapes. **Twang!** If she was out in the open instead of shooting through a window she would have been shot down instantly…the glider suddenly exploded, almost looking spontaneous if not for the burning arrow which sailed downwards, almost hitting another. Then there was a loud screech from the South…

******

Phantom watched in horror as his most horrible nightmare came to be. The loud roaring screech of hungry rage. He dropped down onto a rooftop as he watched the chimera gliders falter, all of the others stop what they were doing and look up fearfully. _He_ had found them. Suddenly a black shape tore through the shadows just underneath the chimera ship, sending three gliders spinning now without occupants. He had taken them. There was another loud screech.

******

"RETREAT! RETREAT! HT-4! HT-4 HAS FOUND US!!!" Lirash screamed at the transmitter. "RETREAT!" The pilot knew to surge forward through the air. "GET BACK TO THE SHIP OR BE LEFT BEHIND!!!"

*****

As if responding to some kind of call, the chimeras were retreating any way they could back up to the ship as the black beast tore through their ranks…KawaiiKitsune finally realized what was happening and drew back, suddenly feeling absolutely sick. It was eating them. Swallowing them whole. Suddenly she realized there was someone on her roof…normal sized, to her relief. Suddenly Minimaniac swung in through the window. "What the hell's going on!?" He cried, glancing back out the window as the creature screeched again.

*****

There was no choice but to fight it. Combat it with any means nessecary. Destroy it before it engulfed all of the survivors…which it would. Phantom glanced up at the gliders as the creature flew over using the wings it had gained right in front of his eyes, just over a year ago. It screeched wildly again as the breeze from its wings sent a colder than cold chill through the air which shallowed Sama's flames. Phantom tensed his muscles and was suddenly where he wanted to be, a glider. Where was HT-4? Suddenly he heard the screech behind him and tipped straight downwards. He had been just in time. Echidna onlookers watched the aerial battle, their stares fixed upon the combatants. Phantom reached down as HT-4 started turning for another pass. Two rounded steel objects dropped from the bottom of his machine and propelled themselves forward…yes, they were homing missiles. HT-4 was coming back, screeching wildly and glaring with bright red eyes. The missiles tried to turn upwards and missed as Phantom realized the glider didn't have time to save him this time. He jumped upwards, the creature soaring under him and the glider's left engine being totaled…it spun down to the ground in a whirlwind of smoke as echidnas desperately tried to escape its path. Phantom teleported again, landing on another abandoned glider which was still hovering after its occupant's demise. That green stripe down its centre seemed familiar…he downed again…but HT-4 had learned this time and suddenly lunged downward…missing Phantom by a hair…then it started swerving side to side as Phantom was nowhere to be seen…he was riding the creature's neck. It reached a clawed hand to him and started reacting to the wind turbulence and stopped trying. At any moment it could have decided that the turbulence was too insignificant a problem to make him want to give up the chance to destroy the one who had once beaten him. Phantom's eyes glowed green as light shone out of them, but the pillar which appeared from the ground was too short to reach up to the creature. Giving up on PH-1 for now, it started diving at the surviving echidnas upon the ground. He was going to throw him off that way, Phantom realized. "LOOK OUT!" Mini screamed to KK. "JUMP! JUMP!" The creature was heading straight for their building. Minimaniac dived straight out the window, rolled on the ground and looked up to KK, who reluctantly leapt from the window as the creature's eyes were close enough to see clearly. The falling, the saving drop-the creature bit into the rooftop with a huge crunch and the stone of the wall was obliterated where he hit. It landed on the rooftop and crunched its meal hungrily…Phantom knew where he got this from, one of the chimeras he had knocked clean off its glider. Unjan, who could eat anything he wanted, even solid rock. But this posed a new problem…and Phantom sensed it immediately as the creature's skin began to harden. He was gaining properties from the stone itself. It reared its head, almost knocking Phantom clean off as he lost his grip on the now solid skin. If it weren't for those wings…but he had no choice but to leave the creature's back and jump to the stone roof. It reared its head and roared again. It wanted a fight more than to swallow him, it seemed. Typical old HT-4. It jumped up and flapped its now glowing wings to take to the skies. Phantom could not follow. Instead he focused on his Terras power. Light emerged within him as the creature unleashed five glowing lights while hovering in the air, which shot toward Phantom's position as he teleported out of their way. He outstretched a hand as Sama darted up to him, still wildly aflame. Pellets of power from the earth fired out of his hand, the flurry going straight for HT-4 as it again dived in his direction from afar. Some collided with it and seemed to cause some pain, but the rest went straight past…and darted back in HT-4's direction. Phantom smiled to himself as the creature tried to swipe them aside with its spiked tail, only causing itself more pain. By the time it was swooping over the rooftop, Phantom wasn't there anymore. It let out a screech of anger. It craved nothing more than to beat the creature which had beaten it in battle, and its escape was unacceptable. 

Phantom was catching a breather inside one of the buildings when suddenly, out the window, he could see the creature's eyes glare straight at him. Of course. Liunys saw things thermally and by energy readings…he was one of the gliders HT-4 had swallowed, it seemed. The creature now more like a live gargoyle was diving at the stone wall where Phantom was behind…suddenly more of the green pellets shot out of the windows, containing the power of Terras of the earth. The pellets kept firing…but HT-4 didn't seem to care in the least. He kept zooming for his prize. At the last minute Phantom went to dive out of the way and found himself on a road, surrounded by surprised and fearful echidnas who didn't know what the heck was going on. The shrieking creature was passing over the town again…but this time was different. Energy bombs were falling. One of the echidna girls was the first to realize it and run into a building screaming in terror, almost slipping over in her friend's blood. Phantom stood there, allowing his upward-bent spine breathe with the wind. Just before impact of one of the dropping bombs he was above the creature again, dropping to another glider that was still there hovering in place. One that HT-4 wanted to dispose of. Phantom had to point his nose straight downward again to avoid being grabbed. Then it was a matter of magnetic boots to turn himself upright again as HT-4 began to turn around for yet another pass. But this time was different. The creature was turning around back at him, but then it stopped itself and hung in midair. Phantom have it a puzzled, angry look. Then he saw what it was doing. It dropped an energy bomb down toward the street, then flipped over and caught it as he dropped. Then it got back in position and threw the bomb which was now splitting into hundreds of tiny pieces. No way out. One of them caught the motor, instantly deactivating it…but before Phantom could fall even an inch it had grabbed him…and shoved him down its slimy throat.

*****

Minimaniac looked up from his position next to KK and her injured leg in utter disgust and fear as the huge creature went to land on a building rooftop and claim victory over its most hated rival. It looked up and reared its head…then suddenly clutched its stomach. What, in pain? Maybe Phantom's arm blades hat but its stomach…then suddenly the pieces of the creature were flying everywhere. Sama could see Phantom standing there triumphantly, surrounded by green mist that was slowly fading. He had done it. He had destroyed that which most threatened the town that even the chimeras feared it like a god. A truimpant grin edged across his face as the echidnas in the streets started cheering 'Hedgehog! Hedgehog!' Phantom was annoyed that he had again been mistaken for a being of this planet, but what the hey! They were appreciating his amazing triumph! He raised his arms. Victory. The Incire Globe was safe for now. 

*****

Watching from a distance atop the ship which he now ruled, Lirash marveled at the power and courage that Phantom showed. At a few beeps of his communicator he raised it to his ear and listened…then "HT-4 is dead. We can go back now."

"No we can't, sir."

"Why not? Echidnas and a traitor do not concern the Zebark Chimeras!"

"His energy reading is still there, sir. And Piamiarch is missing."

Lirash's eyes widened. "We will never be rid of the creature then."

"It seems so, sir."

"…Stay here and watch. If he finishes off PH-1 and the town, there will be nothing to keep him here that he knows of."

*****

Phantom couldn't believe his luck. One more second to release that power surge and he would have been a goner for sure, and then HT-4 would have been able to teleport. But something was still wrong. He could feel it behind him. Then his eyes widened, just like Lirash's just a few kilometers away.  He could hear the pieces joining. Then he remembered, once, meeting a chimera who blew himself to shreds and was able to reassemble himself…who had been training to be a glider pilot.


	9. Release of the Titans

**Chapter 9: **     **Release of the Titans**

Phantom didn't bother to turn around to see what was going and threw himself forward in a desperate bid to escape the first lunge. The terrified echidnas saw him leap straight at them and then suddenly the reborn creature's head lashing out for a taste of chimera blood. Many screamed. Just when they had thought they were safe, he was back from the dead again. Phantom landed on his hands, then his chest and knees in the dust, which he soon began to cough up. The screeching of HT-4 was still ever-present. Phantom looked up and outstretched his hand at the stone creature's gaping maw. The green pellets fired rapidly into its jaws with the power of Terras, making it cry out in more pain. Then it jumped up and landed right next to Phantom, trying to pierce his ears with its roaring cry. He stayed put and tried to waft that awful smell from his nose. He would not show fear. He blew this thing up once…he could do it again if it tried the same tactics…what he had to watch out for is anything that would knock him unconcious. There was nothing to do now but run. The creature tried to figure out whether to gnaw on some echidnas when it realized its prey was getting away…not so easily. Minimaniac ducked behind the glass-less window ;pane in case the huge creature saw him as first its prize and then HT-4 itself ran past screeching horrendously. KawaiiKitsune was standing next to him armed with the usual. When the creature was no longer looking, she pulled out an arrow, watching HT-4 run, roaring, kicking up red dust, after its rival, its enemy. Then, as soon as the clear shot arose…**twang!** The arrow shot past, scraping the back of HT-4's neck. It turned around and glared at the window from which it had been attacked, but there appeared to be no-one there. "Good shot." Whispered Mini. "With a neck that thin…" Then HT-4 activated his thermal vision. Instant targets. Mini's eyes widened as the creature reared up for the strike. They could not escape. KawaiiKitsune stood straight up and **twang**ed off another arrow that hit the creature on the inside of its jaw. It stopped mid-lunge and collapsed almost spontaneously. KawaiiKitsune shook all over. Was that this creature's true weakness? Its _jawbone_? Minimaniac peeked up, as did Phantom as he turned around and saw its limp form, the dark blood dripping from its cruel maw. It couldn't be dead…it just couldn't be. But it certainly appeared so, he had never seen so much blood coming from one of these creatures before, even after its head was split open. Phantom approached it with caution, almost tripping over a deceased echidna and its pool of blood…HT-4 gave a gurgling growl, and then went 100% limp as far as Phantom could see…he nudged its head with his unwilling hand, and tangled with the jaw-arrow a little, ripping it from its place with a painful-sounding slurp. Suddenly its black claws leaped out from underneath it…Phantom was just in time to give it a retaliating stab in the hand with his arm blades. It screeched in pain as it rose to its feet again, its dripping mouth and hand a bloodied mess despite what had been a layer of solid rock. Its red eyes glared menacingly as KawaiiKitsune and Minimaniac hid themselves again. SamaDaMana watched from above on a rooftop which he had just reached. Then it seemed to be communicating with Phantom… "You know you can't beat me." It snarled gleefully in the chimeran tongue. "I am impossible to destroy…I am a titan!"

Phantom met its gaze with determination. "I'm damn well gonna try!"

 Suddenly Phantom was gone. He was over there now-no, over-over there! Over-HT-4 couldn't keep up either until Phantom brought a fist up through the hole in HT-4's jaw, scratching its chin with his arm blade, then he was gone again. "Yo! Up here!" It looked and was instantly leaping up to get him for his victories. But he was gone again…suddenly, as the beast was ready to land back on the ground a pillar of earth shot up, throwing HT-4 into the air and filling the hole in his chin with dust. Phantom appeared in the air right next to him and grabbed him by the neck, pushing back on his legs to flip him over backwards and slam his head to the ground…then another pillar shot up, sending it into the air…and for the coup de grace, Phantom outstretched both of his hands, joining his palms…then there was the huge green beam which would push HT-4 a looong way from home.

It was done. HT-4 wasn't going to face Phantom again for a while…not for a few months, while in the meantime it licked its wounds. It wanted to beat him, and to do that it would have to be at absolute full strength, plus a few extra powers as long as Phantom had the ball on his side. Minimaniac and KawaiiKitsune watched the skies for a few minutes before daring to leave their position. Sama jumped straight down to Phantom. "You did good." He said praisingly.

"The radiation from the Incire Globe must be helping your brainpower, Sama!" Phantom laughed.

"Help Hawk now! Tell him it safe!"

*****

"He's retreating now, sir. PH-1 is too powerful for him."

"Not the desired outcome. Either way! We attack again now! They must be growing weary by now!"

*****

It was that humming sound of the chimera ship again. "They're back! They're back because I defeated the-"

Sama ran for it with all of his strength, straight toward the 'burned down' house that had once been his, but was now the hidden entrance to the Incire chamber. The explosions began as bombs dropped upon the last survivors of the cataclysm, the bravest that remained-which basically consisted of Phantom and his allies. Sama dropped through the seemingly endless earthy shaft, the light getting weaker and weaker, then stronger until he landed and bent over, tipping himself for a roll. Bluehawk was still there, pushing out as much power as he could, combining the chaos emerald's strength with that of his own power. "Hawk! Let me take over!" Sama called.

Hawk let go and stood normally. 

"I'll take it from here! It's mine for now!" Sama ran past Hawk and picked up the red, glowing orb. Bluehawk stood there, waiting for him to take it. He placed his hands on it, and pulled it straight out. "Hahaha! Right under your very nose!" He cried manaically.

Hawk stood there, stunned for a second as Sama turned around. 

"I have it! Master will have it soon and control…EVERYTHING!"

Hawk stood there in shock, unable to take it in. But then the purple cloud appeared, and the cloaked figure with it. 

"Hahaha…I will explain it all to you…" He cackled as Hawk looked up at Sama's grin in disbelief. "When your window was smashed, I broke in through the window and deposited…this clone…"

Hawk stood there, stunned. This couldn't be happening.

"He was created from the real Sama's DNA, strong with Incire power and not lacking in brain. DNA doesn't carry injuries such as scars. The real Sama is at your destination!"

This explained a lot, Hawk realized. The power that Sama was suddenly starting to gain. How he was a lot smarter than normal during this quest. The way he had seemed a lot stupider than normal after the apartment was broken into-he wasn't entirely sure how to act. Suddenly Hawk felt pain in his chest…like that of his ribs, but he was holding the emerald…then he saw. A glowing purple orb was flowing out of him like a ghost. The…the _Pesnah_ Sphere? He had all along been its keeper and guardian!?

"But the one who claimed to be his clone was a lot smarter as well!" He cried as he fell to the ground, panting.

"Only in short bursts, like always." The cloaked one cackled as he took the Incire Globe from the evil Sama's hand, the Pesnah sphere from the air, and in turn, the yellow Terras Ball from out of the earth above him.. 

"No! Stop!" the chaos energy of Bluehawk's anger struck at both of them, hitting only the wall as they disappeared. A small inscription was in the pedestal that this echidna had just desecrated.

_Many parties of evil seek control;_

_Some more witting than others_

_But through the power they unleash_

_Light shines on a bird of blue._

What the heck did this mean? Wait…could it be the titan that…suddenly Hawk remembered…_when one is taken, its rival flourishes…_The desert was about to be encased in ice!

"Phantom!" He cried as he emerged into the light. "Mini! KayKay! LET'S GET OUTTA HERE!"

*****

Lirash finally finished falling and landed with a crouch, followed only by another, very short chimera, General Upid the midget, who had uneven green streaks. They both walked forward slowly, their hearts thumping with the joy at the power that was awaiting them…wait, was this the end of the cave? Surely not, this pedestal was empty! Unless… "GRAAAAAGH! GET OUT NOW!"

*****

There were no echidnas left to witness their fair desert's fall. The shining blue-ish white first showed throughout the town of the Incire Globe, then spread like a disease, or pancake mix on a lumpy pan, across the desert, covering all as Bluehawk and his friends made their escape on gliders stolen from chimeras in a hurry. They would never have reason to return here, it seemed, as the chimera ship made its escape in the same direction. Eastward. In the direction of where the ice orb had been taken from what seemed like years ago.

*****

The first destination was Graim's, where they had left the Squall that was now finished repairs by a friend of Graim's going by the design manual, and Bluehawk's two chao were happily greeting him. "You guys may be of some slight use in the next few days…" Hawk smiled grimly. There they explained the situation a few times and realized it was time to check out what the inscriptions were at the site of the Pesnah grabbing. Bluehawk wanted to go alone.

It looked just as he had seen it last, the city upon the tower, or ruins upon the tower more like, which had once been surrounded by whirlwind. The plane was difficult to land (the controls were slightly different now too, it felt like) because of the rocky ground, but it was managed on the edge of the tower. Bluehawk treaded the ruins, jumping at every slight motion as if it could attack him. The city, now that he was up here, almost seemed to span further than this tower, now that he realized that this couldn't possibly be a city, and the rocks down there weren't natural. But, like he expected, he soon came upon the hole in the ground which marked the chamber and dropped down. It was just like the Incire chamber. In fact, exactly like it, the pedestal was in the same place and all…the inscription contained the strangest message of all.

The flame of day.

_The ice of night._

_The woods of old_

_The shocking truth of new_

Hawk didn't take much thinking to know what it meant. The flame of day…Incire represented day. The ice of night…the Ice element represented night. The woods of old…woods sprang from the earthy itself. Terras. And the 'shocking' truths and surprises were Pesnah. His power. He had been the keeper of Pesnah all of this time and not known it. The keeper of the future? Interesting idea. Suddenly a strange old rhyme came to mind…Future. Past. Day. Night….and then to the center of all…what was it? He had heard someone say it before! He knew it! It was even more vague than the beach house scene, where his parents died. _And then to the center of all…_

He was back at Graim's by mid-afternoon to pick up Phantom, leaving Minimaniac and KawaiiKitsune where they were. This was extremely important, but the plane couldn't even seat two, so it was better that no more than one person rested on the wing if necessary. They had to head South…to the _centre,_ where perhaps more answers could be found. The cloaked one had claimed that he would gain ultimate power…what did that mean? According to the map Hawk picked up at SoaH city, they were close when they passed mortality rock, which looked much like a human male in extreme pain, he was posed almost like HT-4 when his jaw was pierced. Phantom knew he was running low on power from the Terras Ball and so conserved it, using just enough to prevent his teleportation from the plane. They landed when they knew they must be close, right on the start of dusk. Bluehawk ran forward, suddenly realizing something he had once heard about a floating island with a huge chaos emerald powering it which had once been nearby…and suddenly he stopped as he reached a huge downward hill…a crater almost, although it was more like a bottomed funnel. Perhaps this was the-he lifted out his map as phantom caught up. "According to this map, this be the place." He stated. Phantom ran down toward the center where a large rock lay…that was one flat surface. And sure enough, it was inscribed. 

When evil collects the greatest four 

_Hope doesn't seem to remain_

_The champions and titans_

_Will cause ultimate cataclysm._

Ultimate cataclysm? What the heck? That couldn't be good. Then Bluehawk suddenly realized a strange smell in the air. Purple haze… "SHIT! PHANTOM!"

Phantom noticed as well. The purple smoke which could only mean the cloaked one teleporting in a whole mass of beings. Bluehawk grabbed Phantom and ran for it up a tree, and just in time they found a nice mass of leaves as the cloaked figure apparated, the clone of Sama next to him…and appearing all around the two were the black figures. The red eyes. The shadow humanoids. They littered the whole crater in their hundreds, all walking slowly inward. Bluehawk could hear the cloak's voice easily. 

"We have done it. Soon, the titans will be at my command!"

He threw his hands into the air, releasing the four orbs from his cloak, each moving in a different compass direction from him…the purple light of the Pesnah Sphere drifted to the north, lighting the shadow men with a violet glow. The yellow-green glow of the Terras Ball hovered to the South end of the crater, striking the humanoids with an eerie yellow essence. The red-orange luminance of the Incire Globe floated toward the west, striking the red-eyes with the red glow. And the whitish-blue essence of the Akise Orb drifted east, making the shadows look like they were already frozen solid. The globes lowered into the ground and burrowed downward into it, looking spectral and ghostly. And then they all froze to their positions, simply staring at the cloaked one, even the Sama clone, who seemed even more bewildered than the shadows. 

"In a few hours…they will all be released upon the world at my command. When the gem of yin-yang is in position."

Bluehawk and Phantom both wiped sweat from their foreheads as they got back to the plane in their hurry to get back to Graim's. They were going to destroy or take over (or something) the world…but using what? It wasn't long before they got back to Graim's in a total rush of the need to get going. They had to combat whatever this threat was. Bluehawk's first stop was the phone.

*****

The secretary of the SoaH City Hall sat down again after showing Nambuk to the city council meeting room doors, and suddenly the phone was ringing. 

"Can I help you?"

"Patch me through to the mayor! This is urgent!"

"What kind of urgent?"

"Like THE WORLD IS ENDING URGENT!!"

The secretary rolled her eyes and went to go interrupt the meeting. "URGENT call for Mayor Neon Chaos." 

"Excuse me." The green echidna-like creature walked slowly to the phone in his office, wondering what the heck was going on. "Yes?"

"Sir! Gather EVERY FIGHTER AND MAGE IN SOAH CITY and send them directly North West to the crater near Mortality Rock! I don't know exactly what we're facing here, but if this battle fails the world could be doomed!"

Neon barely reacted.

"And SoaH City will be first to go!!"

Suddenly his eyes widened. "Okay. I'll do it."

*****

It was nearly in place. The huge floating lump of rock, right on dawn, was going to be perfectly in place. Angel Island and its Master Emerald, the gem that combined all of the elements, was slowly moving toward the small army of black shadows, and the cloaked one with the yellow echidna. It was in place…and suddenly everyone was blown backwards by a forceful wind and a wave of heat. The energies were combining and the seal deep below was finally being unlocked.

*****

A huge, hulking creature made entirely of flame climbed slowly out of his hiding place deep within the volcano that destroyed the towns of Ekasn, and on the other side of the mountain, the town of furries of which no-one knew the name but its occupants. The signal was there on the horizon. That white glowing pillar of light. It was time to go and thwart the seal and become immense in size…finally, the seal was truly breaking. 

*****

An immense bird of blue and white looked up to the sky, and as expected the pillar of light had come right on time. Its movement would be free now…and it was time to leave this now frozen wasteland and prevent the other titans from doing more damage!

*****

The huge armadillo-turtle creature looked up from its enormous burrow. Since that little blue thing had hurt it, it had powered down slightly…but the seal was breaking, judging by that pillar of light reaching into the clouds. The time for destruction was come.

*****

The cloaked figure let down his arms as he stood in the centre of the tower of light, freezing the strange island in place. The shadow men stood further back, as did the echidna clone. And the light began to fade…but the pounding sound didn't. The titans were coming, getting closer, getting bigger now that their power was no longer restricted. They now had control over everything of their elements. And they were coming for their command. Before long each could be seen upon the horizon, except for the bright blue bird. They all stopped at the edges of the crater according to their respective directions, and looked down to the figure in the middle as if to say 'what is our command?' the cloaked figure looked back up to them, thinking. _What should the first target be?_ There was a strange buzzing in the air at this point…what could that be coming from? The titans looked around, and their eyes all seemed to fix on one place that the cloaked one could not see from down in the crater. The shadow men all started running out to where they were looking…but it seemed they could not see anything either. Whatever it was was being hidden by the lack of light on the plain. Wait…not plain. Plane. It was a plane flying around. A small one. And coming from the South East was a mass of movement and colour. All of the fighters from SoaH City had gathered to take on this massive threat.


	10. Battle of the Titans

Chapter 10:    Battle of the Titans The giant of flame, the digger turtle and the violet-white shrieking thunder-ghost all stared at Bluehawk's plane as it weaved between them, as if it were a mere insect. "All mages! Concentrate fire on the flamer!" Bluehawk put the transmitter down and received a lot of 'copy that's. The shadow men, the Sama clone and the figure in blue cloaks simply stood there, watching. The small army was nearing their destination, and numerous fighter planes of every colour were circling about. No-one was attacking yet, but the titans were getting irritated by the buzzing planes which were beginning to swoop and dive, looking for weaknesses. The action hadn't even started yet. "They're elementals! Perhaps their opposites are what we need to hit them with! Over!" "Get them." Snarled the one with the cloak. Suddenly the thunder ghost was over there, amongst the small army, discharging thousands of megawatts of energy into the air. The flame giant bunched his hands together as the Squall buzzed around his head, then slammed down, causing a puddle of molten rock. Bluehawk shuddered as he turned around and swooped at the now massive turtle thing…was this the same creature he had fought after the moles? It lifted its foot, then brought it down…then suddenly a line of earth, directed at the small army, seemed to split in two, and the left side shifted upward. Most of them were out of the way, all of them had dodged before the crack truly split. Then the pillars struck, shooting straight ou8t of the cracks. Yep, it was the same beast. "SCATTER! SPELLCASTERS, ATTACK USING OPPOSITE ELEMENTS! AIRCRAFT, ATTACK THE SHADOWMEN! FIGHTERS DO WHAT YOU CAN!" Urthdigger the mole lowered his receiver and almost dropped it. These huge things…they were supposed to take these things down? Quickly he pulled out the ice blaster and pointed it at the flame creature as he ran, and fired out a glowing ice-shot to join all of the other elemental shots wizzing around. This was a true battlefield. It went straight through the flame creature with no effect. He went to fire again and was knocked aside slightly by a reckless running hedgehog and the blast misfired, heading instead toward the thunder specter. Urthdigger cursed loudly as he hit the ground and many SoaH citizens ran past him…the thunder specter was roaring in pain. "What was that? Over!" Bluehawk cried into his receiver as he whirled around in his plane, trying to fire upon the running shadows and to no avail. 

"Hawk!" Cried Urthdigger from a different transmitter. "The thunder ghost got hit by my ice blaster! He hates it!"

The titans are the opposites of the elemental champions… 

Bluehawk was afraid of fire. The worst kind of pain. The opposite…the thunder ghost hated _ice!_

"All mages! Concentrate ice element onto the thunder gho-" Suddenly another electrical discharge completely cut off his message and the plane dipped dangerously. But most of them had heard what he said. The thunder ghost was beginning to shrink as huge blue beams discharged into it without mercy. It was already only half the size of the flame giant. "Excellent!" Hawk muttered. But…it suddenly felt like he was being tossed out of the ship, it was rocking so much…and then he realized that he wasn't going where he wanted to. The turtle creature looked up at him with its swamp green eyes, clicking its pincery teeth. Suddenly it was whacked by the final electrical discharge of the thunder ghost before it finally disappeared with a puff and let go, dropping the lifeless engine to the ground. 

Bandit Dorian the raccoon mermaid looked determindedly at the two titans that remained…earth and fire. If the thunder titan had just been felled by the power of ice, not of earth, then what would the others be weakened by? Suddenly she realized the mass of black humanoid shapes moving toward the two split halves of this army. Coloured glows were zipping around through the air, some of them powered up by the will to protect their brethren…they would tire themselves out before long. Bandit glared forward at the shadows approaching at twelve o'clock, lifted her sword and swung sideways, whacking the darkening red-eyed humanoid clean out of the way for another SoaHer to deal with. They were trying to surround. But with all of these willing fighters, there wasn't a huge chance…

The flame beast reared its arms again for a hard smackdown. Bluehawk looked up, seeing the glowing orange streaks flowing, rippling against the sky and bending the new light of the sunrise sky. There was only one way to avoid this move…swing with it. Bluehawk turned the handle to the right, pushing it with all of his might, straight at the lapping legs of flame…no blurring of light apparent…the arms were bending down again, but Hawk was through, although the wings were singed. The creature slowly turned around and saw exactly what Hawk saw with amazement. The flashing light of a chimera ship.

*****

"Sir!" the chimera pilot said in his native language. Lirash came running. "The Thunder Titan has already been destroyed…and what's that happening to the Earth one?"

"The shadowmen need our help. Look at this, all of SoaH City is down there! If we can wipe them out…SoaH City is full of the most powerful fighters and mages in the world."

"We'd have a clear path, sir!"

"I'll give the order to attack as soon as it's safe to do so-we don't want any accidental casualties caused by those stupid elementals…"

*****

Bluehawk swerved upwards, narrowly missing the plane which was heading back toward the titans for another pass on the black shadows. But Bluehawk had a completely different goal. That chimera ship had to be taken down before it reached the SoaH citizens. Those chimeras had to go down before they could cause damage akin to the desert town! The ship was nearing, but it didn't seem to be approaching the battle as such, it was just hovering about. _Hope I'm not taking unnessesary risks…_Bluehawk thought to himself. Soon there was no choice in the matter as huge green plasma balls fired out of unseen cannons, forcing Hawk into a downward barrel roll as he fired his turrets on each wing. Good to see they were in working order, but this was a dangerous situation. "All fighter planes! Attack the dark teal ship! Take out as many turrets as you can and we may find a shield generator! Over!" There was much confusion in the ranks as to why, but they obeyed. Clearly if Bluehawk thought it was a valuable target, it was worth shooting down. Bluehawk straightened out, despite the green energy pulses that were zooming past him constantly. The Squall was flying over the ship now, diving low almost as if landing, whipping Hawk's fringe of fur about everywhere. Then he turned upwards, which was probably what the chimeras were expecting, but the bullets rained down…Bluehawk dipped slightly, just missing another green energy pulse  from the left. The plane turned at the source, firing directly at the turret, the barrel pointed straight at the propellor…it was about to fire, Bluehawk suddenly turned and watched a bullet reach its mark, going straight through the barrel…which backfired and exploded behind him. Temporary triumph as within seconds the wing was pierced by the bad aim of a fellow aircraft. Bluehawk looked to the right in surprise as suddenly the plane was beyond control, tipping dangerously to the right as smoke bellowed from the gap in the wing. The ground was flipping about wildly as Hawk's stomach lurched and the plane was sliding along through the mud upside-down. There was a loud boom which vibrated through the ground, then another one, so much closer. Then Hawk was able to see the shockwave of the next one against the red sky and the dark grass patches…energy bombs. He was trapped. 

The shadow men threw themselves aside in fear as the attacks of the army tore them asunder. A huge column of searing hot water tore through their ranks like a hot knife through butter. Even the SoaH citizens had to leap out of the way to avoid being burned and tossed about madly. What looked like an orange fox with black eye-whites smashed a few forthcoming shadows to the side and to the ground with his metallic arm, discharging electricity into it for extra damage. A whole group of the red-eyes formed in front of him as he stormed forward, then suddenly stopped in front of them, eyes menacing. Then the metallic arm was outstretched again and opened up into a huge array of long steel objects, which flame propelled themselves en-masse directly at the enemies, exploding upon impact and sending them flying…scattering like chickens in a barnyard. There were only a few of them left…the cloaked dude and the yellow echidna were probably still down in the crater…then suddenly a huge flaming fist slammed down on the ground behind him and the stomp of a nearby giant turtle creature caused a massive crack through the ground, almost dropping Zyborg 22 into it. Suddenly a red hedgehog streaked by, jumping along the crack, leaping up with a skateboard style trick and slamming his feet straight into a shadow man's head, knocking him over. There were only three left now-that one was hit away by the crack, another by the water column…The titans weren't very active…then suddenly there was a loud screech from the West…a blue-white glow…the ice bird was coming. Saberz looked up from his running and slowed as he neared the edge of the crater. Was this good or bad? Its huge wings pushed against the air below it, forcing it upwards as it reared its head, then a blaze of blue-white light burst out of its mouth straight at the flame giant…it instantly began to shrink dramatically, flailing its arms about wildly as the noise of guns flared from the chimera ship which was now pulling in, seeing that it was needed. The earth titan shook its fist angrily, knowing it couldn't reach until the bird lowered itself…it was drawing in further, making its beam shorter range and more powerful. But the range made it easier to be hit, too. Suddenly the earth titan struck, stamping its foot and disappearing under the ground…suddenly a huge pillar of rock shot straight up from underneath the bird, catching it by the belly and hurling it into the air as the titan surfaced, its friend struggling to recover its size. But it kept shrinking, especially when the earth titan buried it in a rocky fist with a loud thoom noise. Now it was between the bird and the turtle. Until the chimeras landed…explosions sounded from the huge ship as it fired energy pulses all over…some of them hitting the ship itself due to clumsy gunners who were about to be fed to test subjects. But the ship was drawing in ever-so-slowly as the sun rose into the sky, slowly bluing the horizon, casting a huge shadow of the chimera ship along the dusty ground. The earth titan ducked underground to avoid the blue beam which was constantly in action, following its every move. The bird kept on dipping to get closer, rising to dodge pillars. And this continued, everyone simply looking up and watching intently. The shadowmen had been taken care of and would not be of any harm. The cloaked one and the Sama clone remained in the crater. Then, finally, both aims struck true. The bird was whammed in the throat by a well-aimed pillar strike…which caused its aim to zip right off, catching the earth titan from the legs upward and over its head. Both roared and shrieked in pain. But the ice bird was the most effective…it seemed to be fading into the air, into vapour…it was melting, evaporating! Its power was running out! It was gone, vapourized. The Terras Titan roared in triumph, rearing its head. So much for being saved by a bird of blue. The prophecy was untrue. It had to be, Bluehawk thought to himself. If the blue bird died…or whatever happened to it…The blood was rushing to his head, crackling up there as if it were made of electricity. Wait…Pesnah…electricity…it was possible that the power was still within him, right at this moment. For the third attempt at escape from the cockpit full of mud, Bluehawk started throwing himself from side to side, trying to tip the plane or at least wrench his legs free…but there was no way the plane would flip over when its wings were outstretched. Suddenly the chaos emerald fell out from behind him, embedding its sharp side into the mud with a sort of chunk noise. Bluehawk reached downward, pressing against the ground and snatched it with the other hand, head beginning to throb. The roars of the earth titan rang loudly through the air as those who were fleet of foot dashed around its feet, a fox girl and a white hedgehog fly-dashing around its head like insects. Suddenly Bluehawk's legs dropped out and squelched into the mud, throwing a few droplets around and onto his sunglasses. But now he could climb under the sides of the cockpit into the open air…the earth titan was faring well as it advanced on the large group which appeared to have suffered no casualties…yet. But if the thunder ghost had fallen to ice, then this one…opposite element…fire. Bluehawk climbed back under the plane and grabbed at the transmitter, clicking in the red button. "Everyone! Use the fire element on it! Over!" and then the mad scrabble back out with the chaos emerald.

Zyborg22 didn't hesitate when he received that last message. To onlookers it would seem that he never ran out of ammunition as he fired entire storms of missiles, completely taking out visibility in their path with their white vapour trails and mass grouping. The explosions on the titan would not let up, nor would the fireballs from the palm of Bandit Dorian around the other side, and the blazing shots from its left, which lit up the ground below them, only began to cease when Urthdigger ran out of ammunition for his flame blaster. But it was working. The creature reared its head with a piercing shriek…Saberz the hedgehog, who was running around his feet, blocked his ears and couldn't stop the ringing. But the titan was shrinking with all of the flame discharges…but then something happened which astonished Bluehawk more than anyone. The crater where Angel Island had first come from was alight with intense flame, and a huge fireball shot out of it, with the faint image of a yellow echidna inside it…The Sama clone was attacking the titan, dropping and then bouncing upwards as if hitting the ground, then curving downward and repeating as if he were a bullet of some kind that turned jaggedly, almost as if he were lighting up the air around him. But as it had worked in the mole cavern it worked now…the titan seemed to be dissolving into the very air itself…and then, with one last shriek which even Hawk, at his distance, had to cover his ears after, it was gone. The earth shook violently beneath everyone's feet. Bluehawk ran to the crater…where the orbs had disappeared into…and as he had thought…the cloaked one was raising his arms as if praising the sky. Then suddenly at each compass point of the crater…starting from the North, a bright purple beam fired out of it diagonally…then a green beam shot out to meet it at the other side. The chimera ship was just above it…a red beam shot out straight into the point where the other two met, and then a blue one from the other side, creating a huge, sparkling field in the air above the crater…and the cloaked figure was rising up, straight toward it…it was a good thing to be in there! The cloaked dude was going to absorb the power! Of all of the orbs! Then suddenly he was throttled down by a dark shape which had zoomed in on him. Bluehawk stood, at the edge of the crater. It wasn't the Sama clone, who was rushing up on the other side…it was Phantom.

*****

"Sir! It's HIM! He's back! His energy signiature is showing right where we are…he must be underneath us!"

Lirash snorted, then suddenly his eyes widened. "Why aren't those other energy signiatures running away from it? Has he joined them…? It's impossible! His madness would prevent that no sweat! It must be something else!"

"His signiature is unique, sir. It can only be him."

"No-one has seen him down there, pilot. Unless he has gained the ability to become invisible, which he hasn't, he is not there!"

Suddenly the ship shook and the scraping of metal came from above. "No, he's not sir…he's right on top of us." 

"EVACUATE NOW!!!"

*****

Phantom stopped and stared, blinking in the lack of light. Bluehawk couldn't see as clearly…but this wasn't right at all. Beneath the cloak was nothing but yellow glow. It was…

"A ghost!" The cloak cackled. "A ghost that will bring you to his own world!" Suddenly Phantom was flying backwards from a strange sort of impact. He hit the ground and was gone, teleported, suddenly spin-kicking the cloak from behind. It blew about a bit, then collapsed as if there were nothing in it. "So much for that." Phantom chuckled. But Bluehawk knew that the current moment wasn't what he was talking about. Then there was another huge roar. No, the titans weren't back, it was from above the chimera ship. The light from the connecting beams seemed to be getting stronger, ever so slowly…perhaps it was charging up somehow. Then suddenly all of the doors in the bottom of the chimera ship opened up, above all of the SoaH citizens…that huge mass of fur. The dark shapes were dropping straight out. Some of them, with wings or with aerial abilities, glided, flew or hovered down. But others…they were just dropping themselves, straight at the ground, almost as if what they were leaving was worse than the impact. Then it was explained. A huge creature…perhaps slightly bigger than HT-4…was peering down from the top of the ship at the people on the ground. Yellow strips on his spines, although he didn't have many because of his huge muscly size. He gripped the side of the ship with a huge hand…Phantom looked up in terror. It was him. The big guy. The Giant. It raised its arms, rearing its head, unleashing massive amounts of light. So it still had its power. Phantom leapt up at the chimera glider flying low. Despite his worst fears, it was time to at least distract it before someone underestimated it…the chimera rider fell off with a cry and Phantom commandeered his new craft upwards, hoping against hope that he wouldn't teleport and fall…He was almost level…the mad glare in the huge creature's eyes taunted him…this was how it all began. _So. You think you can defy me._ Its glare said. 

"Whether or not it works. I'm damn well gonna try!"  Phantom growled in the chimeran tongue. Suddenly there were more chimeras…all around the huge creature, as if out of nowhere…and they all looked the same as each other. Phantom fixed most of them up with the click of a button, firing two missiles right at the center of the group. The Giant was unharmed, but his minions were bloodied and scattered all over the pavement. It didn't care. But this was clearly a battle it would have to fight properly. It swiped over the edge, the chimeras still spreading everywhere around as the ship moved. Phantom doubled back a bit, turning around again. Then he suddenly rushed forward on the glider. The giant braced for impact, ready to grab the glider and swing it backwards…but suddenly Phantom wasn't on it, he was wrapping his arms around the giant chimera's neck…it stumbled slightly, teeter-tottered, and overbalanced off the side. Phantom included, although not for long. His timing was slightly off when he teleported again, as always slightly disoriented by the change in position. But the glider was underneath him again…the giant already in pursuit of it…but his tactic was working. The Giant was distracted from everyone else. It was prepared to bowl them over in its pursuit, but it wasn't bothering with them.

Bluehawk leapt aside as the huge chimera dashed past, high-tailing it like a slow Bluehawk in a 100m sprint. That was some big time…but no, he had to stick around like everyone else. The plane wsn't going to be abandoned…and the real Sama had to be found! Suddenly there was a rumbling by the crater. Bluehawk ran to look. The ground inside the crater was beginning to glow red…the Sama clone stood there watching his feet intently. Then suddenly, from the very center, there was an explosion and a flying chunk of earth straight into the air and the yellow streak shot out of it. The Sama clone almost seemed to fear it slightly, But Bluehawk dashed straight down to the hole now in the centre…it was a small room, again of dirt dirt and dirt. But sitting there in the corner was muffled cries. Sama. The blue band on his head, the green jeans and brown gloves were that of the clone, but their clothes had probably been switched too for the trick. He was gagged and tied. Bluehawk fixed that with a blue glowing beam and some well-placed swishes. 

"The light is a good thing! Put me in it!" Bluehawk listened as Sama began to climb up the wall via some well-placed grooves. "I'm going light!" Bluehawk nodded, deciding to allow Sama to test it before he himself tried to use it. He was floating upward for it…and then it shot out to meet him, pulling him in. The cloned Sama still stood there, almost as if he wondered what was going on. Almost like the real Sama would normally. It was almost scary, the likeness…but then suddenly there was mad laughter from the connection point of the coloured beams. No way, it was the real Sama up there, right? Then suddenly it hit him. He'd been played for a sap or something…but the real Sama would never do something like giving an evil mastermind an elemental orb…of his own race…A dark shape darted out of the light at Bluehawk, who dodged just in time, sprawling on the ground. "You're not the real Sama, are you?"

"I never pretended to be! Your friend was bugged!" 

Bugged? Like, a bug on the mind? The new form was blue, a dark blue, although at times it seemed bright red, or that could have been the light. But suddenly bright red flames were shooting from its hand, easily dispersed by the whipping about of the Lazuli Blade. The 'real' Sama stared on, watching the fight…

Phantom paused and turned around, The Giant was falling back slightly, but he was still running hard. The glider was a bit fast, but like a beacon against the still fairly dark sky. This vermin had to be destroyed whatever the cost. His huge burly arms swaggered from side to side as he approached the waving figure. But then there was a piercing shriek. _No…_Phantom thought, beginning to turn around slowly. _Not again…_But he was right. The winged shape tore toward him from the horizon like a symbol of death. Nothing would stop it if that jaw injury wouldn't…Phantom nose-dived and the black shape of HT-4 zoomed over, stopping when it saw the Giant. That looked like an interesting competition…but PH-1 came first. Phantom glanced at it in terror, wobbling slightly on the glider as it lowered. The Giant suddenly hurled past, trying to grab its target off of its wings. Phantom had dodged aside. Great, attacked from the air _and_ the ground. Only one thing to do. Flee back to where he could get help. Suddenly he felt claws grabbing him, scooting off with him. He looked up and saw HT-4's slobbering mouth, and it looked back to the Giant tauntingly. It wanted to have some fun…this was no fun as far as Phantom could see…the Giant wouldn't fit on the glider…but then he grabbed its ends and dangled from it as he gave chase, grinning maniacally. HT-4 had just turned this into a race straight back to the crater….maybe HT-4's preferred battlefield where there were still many chimeras and SoaHers hanging about.

Bluehawk leapt as clear as he could of the beam of flame which suddenly shot from the blue clone's outstretched palms. Chimeras watched from around the edges of the crater, cheering on this evil force. Where was the SoaH army? The bright coloured beams still all merged in the one place, lighting up the arena with constant flickers. Bluehawk concentrated the chaos emerald's power into his positioning and was suddenly on the other side of the dark blue Sama clone, coming down with a flying kick, whamming into his head with a dull thud. He seemed injured slightly, but then suddenly Hawk's chest area was failing to thousands of thuds…the blurred brown fists, beating him straight down, draining the emerald's protective energies…And then the real Sama was upon this clone with a blaze of orange light…and Bluehawk began to pass out…_No! Fight it! You're still needed!_ Almost like an external voice piercing into his mind, the words gave him no strength…but they gave him determination when he realized the truth in them. If he fell asleep now…Suddenly Hawk was up with a little help from the yellow light. Chimeras from every angle were watching him…watching…and then suddenly one of them yelled out and pointed. The others panicked, paying no attention to the fighting of fire with fire and orange light halfway up the crater hill. Within seconds they were all running for their lives. The Samas payed no attention in their struggle to destroy each other. But that shrieking…those low roars…and that scream…Phantom.

Phantom desperately struggled against the clawed grip of the creature which carried him aloft, pursued by his other worst fear. His two worst and most unconquerable enemies were in the same place. But there was one temporary way out which would simply let the Giant at him anyway…but then…no, there was another way…suddenly he wasn't in the same place anymore, feeling that familiar disorientation. HT-4 shrieked. Its prize had gone…behind him. The giant saw no difference until HT-4 looked above him. He was on top of the glider. He grinned cheekily, then suddenly put all of his weight on the back end, which took all of the weight from the bottom, flinging the Giant into the air…HT-4 didn't stop flying in its chosen direction…it didn't react in time. Suddenly the giant was on top of it, bringing it to the ground. Bluehawk was running over, leaving a huge trail of dust in his wake. Phantom flew overhead the two bumbling creatures, waving tauntingly. They both looked, then glanced at each other. Suddenly the Giant was surrounded by normal size chimeras. HT-4's stone form paid them no heed as he rose into the air…the giant had a plan. It crouched down, allowing its duplicates to climb onto his shoulders, one by one, looking like they were going to fall off at any second…but then he grabbed as many as he could with each arm, reared back...Phantom steered downward as HT-4 passed straight over and was caught on the tail by three chimeras…The Giant lurched forward as the ones that didn't make it ran back towards their master. Suddenly there was a huge strangled cry as Bluehawk wrung his hands around the giant's neck. But the duplicates were none too happy about that. Within an instant they were kicking his back, the thudding pain searing through his back and his ribs, despite the chaos emerald in his hand. Explosions rocked the ground from the air…they were no matter to the ones on the ground. More whoosh noises as the giant let out a roar of pain. The mini-versions of it pulled at Hawk, kicked, punched…suddenly there was a twang and a _shluck_ noise from just behind. "Hawk!" Two voices cried out as two of the duplicate chimeras ran to dispose of them at their master's will. Bluehawk pushed forward, throwing the giant off balance and forward slightly, landing on the last duplicate's head and thumping it to the ground. Then suddenly there was a shriek, a whoosh, and the chill of flapping wings above and the giant was gone…Phantom cried out. Minimaniac and KawaiiKitsune looked up in utter disgust. The three remaining duplicates climbed up to pound desperately on top of HT-4's head, his eyes…and in its mouth, its huge, gaping mouth, were the legs of the Giant, and suddenly they were in, gone. An explosion sounded from back near the crater, its light becoming more and more intense in the relative distance. Phantom started flying about wildly on his glider…even more terrified than he had been before. If HT-4 had just swallowed the Giant…the most powerful chimera in existence…yes, it was enlarging as it reared its head, glowing energy particles gathering and seeping into him. He began to glow as he shrieked triumphantly. Phantom was yelling something…but Bluehawk couldn't hear it…wait, he was mouthing… "RUN!" His mouth said. "RUN! NOW!" Bluehawk shook his head as the thing materialized out of the light, now twice its previous size. Its eyes fixed on the light in the distance, the chimeras around it, the SoaHers around it…Bluehawk, Minimaniac and KawaiiKitsune immediately knew what they had to do. Prevent its one goal-ultimate power from the light of the elements. 

The real Sama slammed to the ground, gasping horribly. The blue clone of himself gloated upon his near-victory with a strange kind of anger…anger at being alive…hatred for the reality of his part-creator. Then suddenly there was a shout and the Sama clone was pounded sideways by a red streak, chimeras around the top of the crater cried out in rage, cheated of their spectatorship. This echidna was one of _them._ It had to be killed…The red streak tore about their ranks, dashing right around them at point blank range…Chimeras got out their guns and didn't know where to point them as the SoaH citizens joined the fray as if from nowhere. But the shrieks from not too far away…their source was larger, the shrieks were more like booming roars…then there were shouts and cries as the chimeras began to try to get away from the battle, away from the roars…their worst fears realized and combined. And then it was in. HT-4 had reached the bright light, the combination of the elements. Now it was truly invincible…temporarily, Phantom and Hawk both hoped to themselves. The light was brightening, the beams even more so…the emerald was running out of energy…slowly, slowly…Bluehawk knew what to do. The emerald pushed him straight forward into the wind…the light…one jump, with perfect timing…and it felt like everything around him was whirling…if it weren't for the sunglasses he would be blinded by the light…or so it felt…energy flowing into him…like the time he had missed his emerald for almost a week…like the time he had only just made it into the super-dousing emerald ring with his brother in time. It felt just like that…like a huge power trip, like everything was entitled to him…and then the light began to fade…Bluehawk felt his new form…slightly different to the one he had in the battle for the emeralds…Then he turned around to see the flaming, hulking beast behind him. It was aflame with white…red…blue…yellow…purple…green…the eyes excreted a red mist as it dropped itself to the ground…then suddenly roared a blast of flame…Bluehawk was blasted backwards by the hot sensation throughout his body…okay, so this time he was not protected by his power…the emerald! The yellow emerald was…in Minimaniac's hand…perfect! The roaring flames of HT-4 growled, snarled…this creature had shared some of its power…unacceptable! 


	11. Battle for the Elements

Chapter 11:    The Battle for the Elements! 

Bluehawk glanced between HT-4 and the now glowing hedgehog Minimaniac…the uncertain Kawaii Kitsune standing next to him, doing the same thing…the chimera upon the glider…the raging bullet and spellcasting between chimeras and SoaH citizens below…suddenly Bluehawk expelled a howl and a rage of energy…a transparent blue wave…and suddenly the chimeras were dropping their electronic weapons, victims of an EMP. Bluehawk smiled with determined pride, his violet fur swaying slightly…Then HT-4 was off like a bullet with a white trail, zipping around, lashing his huge, now forked tongue at everything in sight, tripping them up, giving them severe cuts and bloodstains. He was over-there, no, there, the yellow Minimaniac hovered up next to Hawk. "We have to destroy him somehow!" Hawk yelled. "At least drain his power!" Then it was upon them with a shrill roar as a missile from Phantom's glider whizzed past it. Then everything was going slowly for Hawk, he could see what was going on…the creature was darting about over the other side of the crater…daylight shining through his flames even in their thickest…he was pure energy. Bluehawk was off like the bullets he so often fired…swooping straight through that bright light, it gave a shriek of anger, lashed its head around…Hawk was above it…Hawk Dash! Hawk used his favourite warp move, going straight through the evil beast with a blast of lightning as a new by product-excellent. Again, the flames of HT-4 let out a strong blast of flames…Bluehawk felt the pain through his fur, his ribs…maybe it knew that fire was his weakness…Minimaniac slash-chopped to his aid with a trail of yellow lights…tiny, tiny…HT-4 lashed a single claw and sent them both flying backward…the sound and force of an explosion ensued from the creature as Bluehawk closed his eyes, reeling from the impact, guarding the mass of cuts on his arm. He was not invincible…Minimaniac instantly bounced back with a flurry of chops, punches and kicks before dodging back at another fire blast. Hawk appeared from behind, channeling energy into his fists and unleashing a volley of electrical punches to hack a steel door to pieces. Rock shards came loose from the massive creature's back…but it wasn't enough. "Regroup!" Bluehawk called. "It's got a rock exoskeleton…I think electricity is its current weakness!" Minimaniac nodded…

"LOOKOUT!" Suddenly both of them were forced to bail as a streak of roaring white flame tore between them. Bluehawk wasn't so concerned…Hawk Dash and the huge creature was jolted upward…it started screaming even more high-pitch…as if trying to break glass…(Bluehawk heard a bottle break somewhere) and Phantom looked up in horror…although he had expected this. Shrieks were coming from multiple sources up there…and suddenly the sky was littered with the white flames of smaller HT-4s. It shrieked in triumph. "I'll take out the minies! You two take the big guy!" Bluehawk heard Phantom call. It was time to finish this long drawn-out battle as soon as possible…Bluehawk dodged aside as a shrieking flame dove past him as he flew upwards…and another, and then another…Hawk Dash! Hawk was through the other side, like an electric bolt-travelling through the body and out the other side with a burst of painful energy. And it felt good doing it. Minimaniac attacked from the other side-below-with a flurry of swatting karate chops. The same moves were working well time and time again…then-"Mini! MOVE!" Suddenly a shrieking duplicate lunged at Mini with its mouth open…a loose fist caught its jaw and sent it dropping to the ground dead. HT-4 suddenly lashed out its wide jaws, catching Minimaniac in the middle…the head vibrated before it could swallow…then HT-4 gave in and allowed exit. Minimaniac shot out covered in slime. Bluehawk Hawk Dashed through another duplicate before HT-4 turned upon him, its second rival. Another fire-blast and Hawk realized he was losing power…his arms were going blue again…another missile exploded on the creature and it glanced around, spotting the glider. Yes, this was its favourite prey. Phantom knew what was coming-HT-4's glowing flames were suddenly filling his field of vision…then he was out of its range and it gnashed from above, realizing his absence and dove. Then he was on the glider again, diving with another missile. _Gotta love that teleport…_ Suddenly Hawk was zapping through again with a bang of the breakage of the sound barrier. The battle was faring well. But the stakes were too high to risk. Minimaniac gave a congratulating wink-Hawk had broken the sound barrier just now after all. No time for pride now. HT-4 lashed its flaming tongue out again…he was getting colour back into his body, the flames were thinning and darkening, now colour coding themselves to his body parts. Bullets fired up at the huge flaming creature from below…non electrical weapons, and the SoaHers had obviously taken good care of the chimeras. HT-4's flame began to dissapear, and now dark flapping creatures could be seen darting all over…HT-4 made a desperate dive for the light of the combining beams…Bluehawk again surged straight through it, reaching the light before it could…but he wasn't absorbing any more power…HT-4 flashed inside it, emerged triumphant in that its flame was back…its cruel face gazed into Hawk's….Minimaniac's determined presence leapt up, giving the creature a spin-kick to the tail…another, another-like a dog with a floppy toy, its tail was beating side to side…it turned its attention…bad move, Hawk Dash! Bluehawk, the last remaining of the Pesnah foxes, surged straight through, again, Hawk Dash! Again! Hawk Dash! The alien creature roared painfully, earsplittingly…the people on the ground cringed horribly, Bluehawk realized he must have some resistance…Minimaniac darted around the hovering creature throwing in the occasional attack where he could…Bluehawk was there, no-Minimaniac was-Bluehawk! Got yo-HT-4 started whipping its tail around at deadly speed, hitting Minimaniac out of the air…the emerald out of his hand…_NO!_ Phantom cut in with the glider, catching him and taking him down manually…Bluehawk dashed for the emerald and lowered himself to the ground…it was rising…rising…thud on the landing. "Give it to Mini." Bluehawk handed the emerald to Phantom…there was a piercing shriek…the magnificent, glowing red flaming wings of HT-4 spread out as he made the dive upon his rivals…Hawk Dash! Bluehawk shot straight through its jaw…the flames were fading again…and so was Hawk's power…he flailed in the air for a second, and was dropping like a rock again…this was going to be painful, the ground rushing to meet him, and nothing he could do about it…suddenly the ground turned, now he was hurtling in a different direction…toward the elemental light of the crater again…Bluehawk craned his neck to see what was hooked onto his shirt…not HT-4 or a duplicate…it was an echidna! The Angel Island guardian! "Say thanks, kid!" a low voice suggested, hurling him into the engulfing light. But letting HT-4 to the ground was perhaps not such a good idea…a shockwave of rock hurled itself into the air like giant ripples from a pond…like a huge splash. Bluehawk emerged again, dodging a flame blast from below.

Lirash watched upon the battle from a distance, through the window of his ship. "Joezer, we need an agent. Don't make it too obvious, you know what happens when you tap in too heavily on one strong against you."

"Yes sir." Came the crackling reply. 

The Sama clone was knocked directly into the air by a third booming shockwave of rock and thudded to the ground right on its head. Sama narrowly escaped the attack as it missed his position, it was in a sort of pattern. He had won his battle. Purple and yellow streaks darted about through the air around the white flames, the occasional purple spark flying around. Then HT-4 seemed to decide that he'd had it with these measly contestants who were so pesky…smaller versions, about the size of his original form, started emerging from behind him in a swarm…a swarm of HT-4s. They all looked around, then at a cry from their master attacked those who were threatening him. Phantom darted away on his glider…this was way too dangerous…this way he could see the whole fray. White flames flapped about, gnashing at the two super-speed super forms darting around them…then suddenly there were five yellow streaks, even Bluehawk was slightly surprised. But not too much-he knew the nature of what to expect…lightning flashed about everywhere, but none of the duplicates seemed phased. Then Phantom saw the huge, hulking real deal, glaring and shrieking at him as it tore through the air toward him, filled with rage. PH-1's time has come! It decided. It was time to destroy this rival once and for all. Phantom stood there, as if transfixed…HT-4 was upon him…then HT-4 was knocked backward by a blast of heat and force. Phantom raised an eyebrow as the huge flame in front of him cried out indignantly. The last missile…another rocking through the air of heat. And Phantom was off. HT-4 turned around…he wasn't heading back to the battle of the duplicates…but then he wasn't heading anywhere else either…where was he? Then he looked down to a shout. "Hey!" Phantom waved. Best way to enrage the creature further. 

Lirash suddenly stared at the new light sources coming from the crater…the beams were at different angles…could HT-4 have unearthed the…? Suddenly there was a rumble throughout the ship…as if a massive weight had been placed upon it…the whole control room was bopping up and down…then it stopped. "What the HELL was-" suddenly it was happening again, only more intense…Lirash ran out of the room…something was definitely attacking them…but what was it now? "He's back sir!" Lirash suddenly received a crackling message. "He's back with us!" Lirash scowled. _Damn._ He thought. _Argh…stupid command chain…I was this close to my biggest victory!_

Swing after swing, fireball after fireball…the mini flame creatures weren't even reacting…Shiro the grey fox let his arm hang loose. What now? Was it worth allowing the great strategist into him now, or would he try to figure out this one himself? Suddenly his eyes widened…he didn't even know why. He went to open his mouth and cry out, but it didn't work…he was not in control. His arm swung, firing a fireball out of his sword, then another from his other palm…but these weren't aimed upward. Then suddenly he couldn't remember. He couldn't remember anything…_DIE, SCIENTIST CLIENTS! _The hand was outstretched, the wind emitting from it…the whirling wind…

Phantom looked back at a deafening roar of wind…a whirlwind tearing through the SoaH ranks…sending some flying…most were getting out of the way…and an SoaH citizen, a grey fox, was controlling it, eyes closed. Joezer. Joezer was controlling him, rewriting his mind…Phantom glanced in anger at the chimera ship which was closing in..then suddenly lost his balance at the shockwave of electricity from behind…HT-4 roared fiercely at him, keeping its distance…the last flame duplicate dropped to the ground, wings flapping hopelessly…then HT-4 saw the orbs…Bluehawk saw the orbs…Phantom saw the orbs…Sama saw the orbs…and before chicken shnitzel could be said they were all frantically racing toward Sama, who was picking them all up one by one off the ground of the crater…Bluehawk whizzed by as a blur…Phantom swerved by, having difficulty with his balance…HT-4 swiped at Sama's hands…Bluehawk looked into his hand…he had plucked his favourite orb here…Pesnah! Each of them had one of them…Phantom was glowing a brilliant green…Sama was glowing flaming orange…HT-4's flames were turning a cyan blue…regroup! Minimaniac's illusions surrounded HT-4 like flies…

"Guys!" Hawk cried. "Get ready to combine attacks!" But HT-4 was flying off…to Angel Island! "QUICK!" Minimaniac drew himself down to Bluehawk, Sama and Phantom as they outstretched their hands, each unleashing his own power…even better, Sama actually knew how to use his. Rock shards leapt out of the ground, being sure to be perfectly pointed…electrical charge consumed them and the flame beam to be their river…HT-4 started shrieking wildly as it soared toward its goal.

"Let's get up there now!" Bluehawk cried, his strange purple form slowly wearing off…

The grass was extremely soft and squelchy, perhaps that was partly mud, and the fact that it was still early morning. But the party of three knew their target-knew their enemy's target. Soon they would be entering Wild Canyon, which was near the shrine which was their fear's goal. The shrine of the Master Emerald. It was deathly quiet…HT-4 had probably passed over and scared everything into hiding. The path was squashed in by extremely steep red slopes on either side, but the trio went on walking, knowing that on the other side of the uplift of rock in front of them was the Dry Lagoon, and in the middle somewhere was the emerald shrine. Then suddenly the path dropped out into a gorge. Off to the right was a joining of the two sides, off to the left was a huge pillar of rock and a hole in the ground…suddenly there was a loud crash from down in the hole…light…endless light…and a streak of cyan blue shot up into the sky, a red shape pursuing it…Bluehawk extended his palm, feeling the Pesnah's energy flowing through him like that of the chaos emerald…Sama and Phantom were following suit…and their energies pointed to in between them,  all pointing at each other slightly…magnetized by their wills. Their separate beams fired out as they rose, drawing closer and closer together and toward the menace of HT-4…it was reacting only by fleeing, not yet at full power…but it had the huge green gem in its claws, looking like a normal green emerald would in comparison to Hawk…The energy beams of the three bounty hunters connected with HT-4's tail like grappling hooks, lifting them through the air and back to the crater…why were those fireballs flying around?

The SoaHers were still fleeing…Shiro cried in rage, a rage that had no source to be cut off from…shooting a fireball at a black hedgehog who was approaching him…no affect. Suddenly Muto the demon hedgehog outstretched his palm…and Shiro was suddenly too weak to stand. He threw a dark object at the chimera ship which was moving away…it wobbled through the air, then exploded upon impact. Suddenly the blue flames of the huge creature that had flown off before whirled into view…the light was gone, but not its immense power…but it was heading for the spot anyway, three glowing teenagers attached by elemental grapple beams…then suddenly the huge mass of blue flame erupted in a flash of blue light…the flames were now rock hard ice…HT-4 glanced at its claws, relishing the change. Bluehawk indicated to his friends with a nod…tensed his muscles, and sent himself straight through the beam…


	12. Stormeye Fusion

Chapter 12:    Stormeye Fusion 

KawaiiKitsune looked up…the three of them had just sent themselves straight through their own beams…there was an intense light of blue, red and green on its back…and then it began to fade into a white figure…an echidna? A hedgehog? A fox? Fox tail with a blue fur tip…a fox-like muzzle…the dreadlocks of an echidna, the spines of a chimera…the arm blades of Phantom, enlarged, lengthened. It rose from its position…their minds now as one…HT-4 saw this newcomer, not quite recognizing it…but knowing it shared the three powers it had just battled. It lowered to the ground, looking around for chimeras, seeing only the ship…but that was enough… "STORMEYE BLAST" The voice echoed throughout the plain…jagged rocks rose from the electrical field the ground had become…electrified fire and rock, electrical power circled right around it, blasting the front of the ship from a mile away…Lirash leapt out of the way, and watched dismally as the white beam tore straight through the floors of the ship…the noise…the thooming…the merge of the three looked back at HT-4, raising its eyebrows as if it had been showing off. HT-4 lashed out its icy tongue, the earth that its breath touched instantly crystallized…who was this white creature? It was obvious who he was made from…but…suddenly Minimaniac's mind received the thoughts, as if through telepathy. _I am Stormeye._ Stormeye. Suddenly it outstretched a hand, thwapping HT-4 in the chest and sending it backwards…leaving a trail of HT-4's. Stormeye the bright white fusion creature suddenly charged forward in a blaze of flames and electricity, all of the minis instantly fell to the ground. The chimera ship was retreating…the crackling of radio transmissions filled the fusion's head…the message was deciphered into understandable language… "We need help! This ship won't get far!" Haha… the fused creature lashed out a leg, kicking straight through HT-4's mouth…no reaction…then suddenly massive amounts of elemental energy were discharged in attack form…HT-4 fell to the ground, twitching.

"We have to get it into somewhere it can't escape from."

"Well, it's got serious internal injuries, so I don't think it'll recover anytime soon. A simple extermination of it certainly won't work."

"Anyway…what about those three? How did they do that?"

"I don't know, but they used so much power that they were all unconcious by the time they were done."

Not for the first time, Bluehawk woke up in a hospital bed, Phantom and Sama being on beds either side of him. The sunglasses were as usual on the side of the bed. Last he remembered he had fired himself through his own beam for extra power…but somehow he had a sense of victory inside him…a sense of power. A sense of triumph which was completely unexplained. What was that? Something from when he could only draw a blank? Because he couldn't remember anything clearly…suddenly he heard footsteps and Minimaniac walked in. "Hawk!" He exclaimed happily. "How the heck did you guys-" Phantom grunted. Sama sat bolt upright. 

"What happened?" Phantom grunted again. "Last I remember our beams connected with HT-4…"

"You don't remember!?" Minimaniac cried.

All three shook their heads as KawaiiKitsune strolled in with a newspaper, holding the front page up…what was that thing blasting at HT-4? Echidna? Hedgehog? Fox? All three hybrid? 

"That was you guys!"

Bluehawk blinked. Phantom exclaimed in confusion.

"You never heard of fusion? You guys all merged to become _that!_" 

Phantom instantly knew why. It was because of the Orbs. Bluehawk took a few seconds to try to work out what the heck was going on. Sama blinked blankly. It seemed nothing would ever change with this group.

Bluehawk and Sama arrived in their apartment happily, knowing that they were finally home again, and Phantom on the floor below. The two chao that Hawk had picked up from Graim's flew in joyfully chasing each other around in circles through the air. Skeeter narrowly missed the window. The Squall was sitting in what was now its home, the back alley just under Hawk's window. He would get a little hatch built into the ground for it for hiding, open-able only by a hidden switch in his home. It had been another crazy adventure, although in a few days it would be worth again setting out to find Black Eagle, Bluehawk knew he would escape if he was offered the chance, but he was probably being tranquilized twenty-four seven. If only there was some certainty as to where to look, they would set off immediately.

Minimaniac walked slowly out of the cinema, grinning widely as KawaiiKitsune put her arms on his shoulders. The best life, there was nothing compared to this. But suddenly something startled him out of his daze. A red glint, reflecting off the sun…red sunglasses…dark blue fur…it was gone in an instant as it walked around the corner descreetly. But he immediately went to a payphone, inserted the coins and Bluehawk's number. "Bluehawk…he's in the city."


End file.
